Glacial Studies in Canada

Abstract

DR. WILLIAM H. SHERZER has published in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections (pp. 453–496) a handsomely illustrated preliminary report entitled “Glacial Studies in the Canadian Rockies and Selkirks.” The five glaciers selected are conveniently located in Alberta and British Columbia, and the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway passes near them. Observations have been made on the rate of motion of the Victoria Glacier, which is as low as about 52 feet a year, and on the lowering of its surface by ablation. The front of this glacier shows a shearing movement of one layer over another, as was tested by the pushing forward of iron spikes driven into an upper and a lower stratum. The right lateral moraine receives a certain amount of ground-moraine or sub-glacial material from a hanging glacier on Mount Lefroy, which breaks away in avalanches on to the main Victoria flow. This incident, which is well illustrated, serves to warn us from assuming that all sub-glacial material at a glacier's edge results from plucking action on the wall or floor in contact with the local ice.