Page:Canadian Alpine Journal I, 2.djvu/143

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Motion of Yoho Glacier
271

MOTION OF THE YOHO GLACIER.


By A. O. Wheeler.

At the close of the Paradise Valley camp, on July 15th, 1907, the President with two assistants and a packer made a flying trip up the Yoho Valley, via Emerald Lake, to visit the Yoho Glacier and inspect the row of metal plates set out the year previous. It was intended to ascertain by trigonometric methods the extent of the movement of the ice-tongue down its bed.

The party camped for the night a short distance south of Lake Duchesney, and, early the next morning, July 16th, pushed on to a camp ground within a mile of the ice-tongue.

The glacier was at once visited, and, cutting steps in the ice forefoot, the party reached the comparatively level portion of the tongue where the plates had been set. The row of metal plates placed across the surface of the ice to mark the movement of the forefoot had been fixed in position on the 15th July, 1906, and their respective positions were now being checked, just one day later than the exact year. The method adopted in placing these plates will be found in the report given on pages 149-158, Vol. I., No. 1, of this Journal.

Of the six plates first set out, all were found, though No. 3 had fallen into a shallow crevasse. It was lifted from this and placed on the surface above at a point 10.5 feet farther to the south. As it is likely it received additional impetus from the fall one way or the other, its movement in relation to the original line of plates cannot be absolutely depended upon.