Luzon from Lingayen Gulf to Cape Bojeador, and this is now being extended eastward along the north coast. This triangulation is for the control of the coast line, and extends from the shore to the first line of hills. It is joined to the various astronomical stations and is sufficiently controlled by base lines and observed azimuths. Nearly all the harbor and other survey work is based on triangulation, and is generally connected with one of the astronomical stations, and all the points are marked and described. A triangulation has been carried to the entrance of Manila Bay, which it is proposed to

work along the northwest coast of Luzon native ponies were used by the observers, and bull carts for the transportation of instruments. The work progressed satisfactorily under the conditions there found, which were more favorable than in many other districts. The numerous substantial church edifices with which the country is dotted furnish the best of artificial landmarks and are a decided assistance in all parts of the survey work. In some localities few additional signals are necessary for hydrographic or other work.

In the office of the Survey in Manila detailed plans for the field parties are

arranged, the distance from Washington rendering this necessary. The records and survey sheets are sent to this office, and preliminary charts are prepared and published by lithography in Manila.

In this office there have also been compiled and published a series of seven pamphlets of Sailing Directions for the Coasts of the Philippine Islands, and from time to time there are published Notices to Mariners, giving new information of immediate importance to navigation, as dangers discovered, changes in aids to navigation, and other corrections to charts.

The computations are revised and carried as far as may be needed for immediate use, the soundings are plotted or examined, and the drawings are reduced to the scale required for publication. Besides the American experts in charge of each part of the work, ten Filipino draftsmen and one Filipino computer are employed. The almost entire lack of technical education in the Philippines has been a barrier to testing the ability of the natives in the survey work in the field.

To furnish a knowledge of the coasts

and adjacent waters that will be satisfactory to an enlightened nation will require a large amount of coast-survey work in the Philippine Islands. While considerable information exists, a careful examination of it proves that for only limited areas does it approximate completeness. Many parts of the coast have been only roughly sketched. A glance at the map of the islands shows that the natural highways of this region are on the water, so that a large part of the commerce of the islands will always be carried by water. A few geographical facts will emphasize these conditions. The islands have a general coast line of about 11,444 statute miles, or double that of the main part of the United States, while the total area is 115,026 square miles, or less than that of New Mexico. There is a mile of coast line to every 10 miles of area, while in the United States the proportion is 1 to 555. There are nearly 1,700 islands having names and it is possible to count 3,000 islands and islets on the charts. Even the larger land masses are so elongated in figure that no point in any island is more than 60 miles distant from some part of the coast.

NOR four years it has not been possible for the excursion steamers visiting Glacier Bay to closely approach the Muir Glacier. As that glacier has been the Mecca of many of the Alaska tourists, the failure to see the glacier at close quarters has been a grievous disappointment. During the season of 1899 the conditions were unchanged, and the boats made their entrance into Muir Inlet and landed their passengers as usual, but with the season of 1900 and the following seasons they were able to get no nearer than from five to ten miles below the usual

landing. From that distance it could be seen that great changes had occurred in the appearance of the front of the glacier, and that the ice had receded to a considerable extent.

Desiring to know the extent of the changes, on May 5, 1903, Mr Case, a photographer, of Skagway, Alaska, and myself left Skagway for Glacier Bay in an open boat. We followed in the bay, in all probability, close on the track of Professor Muir and Reverend Young when on their exploration trip in 1879. Going through the passages between the Beardslee Islands and keeping near

the east shore, we entered Muir Inlet, passed back of the small island, and reached the moraine of the glacier. At this point the ice completely blocked further progress, filling the inlet from shore to shore in a solid mass of bergs, large and small. Landing here, we went up to where a view could be had of the inlet and glacier. From this point the ice in the inlet looked as though so closely packed that, from the island on the eastern shore across to the western shore and up to the front of the glacier, one might cross the inlet on the ice at almost any point. At scarcely any place could any water be seen, and to one not knowing that water extended underneath the ice, it would have been

hard to believe it possible. It had the appearance of a great ice-jam in a river, except that the larger bergs were lifted above the mass higher than any jam could raise them. The space of clear water which formerly extended in front of the ice, forming one of its greatest contrasts, was entirely filled.

The glacier had receded until the point of the island in the center of the glacier, shown as being about three miles from the ice-front on the map of the glacier by Professor Reid, in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, February, 1892, was clear of ice except such as lay on the water in front of it. The main branch breaks from there to the mountain at the west, and

the western tributary is entirely separated from it. On the other side of the island, or nunatak, the break of the glacier front extends toward the mountain above the Dirt Glacier in two hollowing curves, leaving a point in the middle extending into the inlet as though resting on a sand-spit or other support. From there it turns west toward the Dirt Glacier and presents an ice-wall of perhaps 100 feet in height or more, nearly to the place the Dirt Glacier enters the inlet. This part of the glacier presents a different front from the main branch. The top of the ice is nearly level, and as it approaches the water it cracks in immense crevasses at varying distances back, and cubical blocks break from it, making much

larger bergs than were formerly thrown off by the Muir. Bergs that appeared to us to be fully 75 feet out of the water were seen 10 miles down Glacier Bay.

The Dirt Glacier pushes its black front out into the inlet from the southeast, forming a separate glacier.

This description will enable any one familiar with Professor Reid's map, or any one who has visited the glacier, to understand the marked changes which have occurred.

Judging from the appearance, it is not improbable that the end of the career of the Muir as a tidewater glacier is near at hand.

Many attribute the sudden changes. to the earthquakes which occurred in

been estimated heretofore, it has drawn back about two and one-half miles since 1899; consequently, to assign the changes to that cause is not at all unreasonable.

I append a sketch, based on Professor Reid's map heretofore referred to, showing changes, and also photographs by Mr Case and myself, showing some of the existing conditions.

Skagway, Alaska.

WHITE GL

MUIR

INLET

May 1903

ronfor ice-pack

C. L. ANDREWS.

NOTE BY G. K. GILBERT

T

HE Muir Glacier is the best known and also one of the most interesting of American glaciers. It is not a narrow river of ice of the ordinary alpine type, but rather a broad lake of ice fed by tributary streams from many directions, and discharging through an outlet valley to Glacier Bay. The bottom of this valley of discharge is below sea-level, so that whatever position in it the glacier front occupies the ice is washed by the water of the ocean. The part of the valley not occupied by the glacier is known as Muir Inlet, and is a branch of Glacier Bay. In 1792, when this part of the coast was mapped by the English navigator, Vancouver, nearly the whole of Glacier Bay was filled with ice, the Muir Glacier being tributary This to a broader stream. broader stream ended in an ice cliff at a point more than 20 miles farther seaward than the present front of Muir Glacier. In 1879 the region was visited by John Muir, who explored Glacier Bay and its various inlets.

He found the front of Muir Glacier well within Muir