Page:Canadian Alpine Journal I, 2.djvu/128

262 moraines. Similarly the Yoho glacier, which is not bounded by steep cliffs capable of supplying such blocks no matter how severe the disturbance. Upon the eastern shoulder of Mt. Burgess there lies a mass of coarse blocks, very suggestive of these moraine blocks, which may have been shaken loose at the same time. The members of the Canadian Alpine Club can be of service in extending these observations to the north and south of the railway and in the collection of evidence which might verify or disprove the above hypothesis.

In describing their observations in the Sun Wapta Valley, Stutfield and Collie (Climbs and Exploration in the Canadian Rockies, 1903, page 126) note the occurrence of a similar type of moraine which may date back to the time of those above noted, or may have been due to a purely local rock-slide. In referring to the peaks Woolley and Stutfield, they say: "These two last mountains appeared to have been conducting themselves in a most erratic manner in bygone ages. A tremendous rock-fall had evidently taken place from their ugly, bare, limestone cliffs and the whole valley, nearly half a mile wide, was covered to a depth of some hundreds of feet with boulders and débris. What had happened, apparently, was this. The immense amount of rock that had fallen on the glacier below Peak Stutfield had prevented the ice from melting. Consequently the glacier, filling up the valley to a depth of at least two hundred feet, had moved bodily down; and its snout, a couple of hundred feet high, covered with blocks of stone the size of small houses, was playing havoc with the pine woods before it on either side. In our united experiences, extending over the Alps, the Caucasus, the Himalayas, and other mountain ranges, we had never seen indications of a landslide on so colossal a scale."

It is interesting to note that the Woolley-Stutfield range of cliffs has a northwest-southeast trend and that this rock débris was thrown to the eastward. It will be