A Magellan Glacier. 125
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its advancing condition was evident from the piles of rubble which
were in places shot in among the green trees, and from the overturned
condition of many of those on the margin of the forest, as
they gave way before the advancing piles of rubbish. It was a
strange sight, standing in the middle of this terminal moraine, to
see, on the one hand, a fresh evergreen forest abounding in the
most delicate ferns and mosses ; and, on the other, a huge mass
of cold blue-veined ice, which was slowly and irresistibly gouging
its passage downwards to the sea. The stones of the moraine
were composed of syenite and greenstone, the former predominating,
and mixed up with them I saw many trunks of trees,
which were crushed, torn, and distorted out of all shape. These
were probably the remains of a portion of the forest, which had
at one time extended further up the valley, and which had been
annihilated by the advance of the glacier ; and this circumstance,
with the other which I have mentioned, showed clearly that the
glacier was now extending its limits and approaching the sea. A
few days afterwards, we paid a second visit to Glacier Bay, when
a good photo was obtained.
We stayed for a fortnight at Swallow Bay, a port in Crooked
Reach, a few miles to the westward of Tilly Bay. It would seem
that this locality had been greatly resorted to by the natives
for catching fish, for we found several of their “ stone weirs,”
in a m.ore or less perfect state. The places selected for these
weirs were usually small smooth-bottomed coves, and the weir,
which consists of a sort of dam built of loose stones about three
feet high, is placed across the mouth of one of these coves in
such a manner, that when it is complete, any fish which may
be inside it will be imprisoned. When it is low water, and the
cove is almost dry, a gap is left in the centre of the weir through
which the fish may enter with the rising tide ; at high tide the
gap is closed up, so that when the water flows away through
the interstices of the dam with the falling tide, the fish remain
imprisoned in a shallow pool where they can easily be caught.
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