This type is represented in the region explored by the Malaspina glacier. This is a plateau of ice having an area of between 500 and 600 square miles, and a surface elevation in the central part of between 1,500 and 1,600 feet. It is fed by the Agassiz, Seward, Marvine, and Hayden glaciers, and is of such volume that {186} it has apparently displaced the sea and holds it back by a wall of débris deposited about its margin. All of its central portion is of clear white ice, and around all its margins, excepting where the Agassiz and Seward glaciers come in, it is bounded by a fringe of débris and by moraines resting on the ice. Along the seaward border the belt of fringing moraines is about five miles broad. The inner margin of the moraine belt is composed of rocks and dirt, without vegetation, and separated more or less completely into belts by strips of clear ice. On going from the clear ice toward the margin of the glacier one finds shrubs and flowers scattered here and there over the surface. Farther seaward the vegetation becomes more dense and the flowers cover the whole surface, giving it the appearance of a luxuriant meadow. Still farther toward the margin dense clumps of alder, with scattered spruce trees, become conspicuous, while on the outer margin spruce trees of larger size form a veritable forest. That this vegetation actually grows on the moraines above a living glacier is proved beyond all question by holes and crevasses which reveal the ice beneath. The curious lakes scattered abundantly over the moraine-covered areas, and occupying hour-glass-shaped depressions in the ice, have already been described. From the southern end of the Samovar hills, where the Seward and Agassiz glaciers unite, there is a compound moraine stretching southward, which divides at its distal extremity and forms great curves and swirl-like figures indicating currents in the glacier. All the central part of the plateau is, as already stated, of clear white ice, free from moraines; at a distance it has the appearance of a broad snow surface. This is due to the fact that the ice is melted and honey-combed during the warm summer and the surface becomes vesicular and loses its banded structure. A rough, coral-like crust, due to the freezing of the portions melted during the day, frequently covers large areas and resembles a thick hoar-frost. Crevasses are numerous, but seldom more than a few feet deep. They appear to be the lower portions of deep crevasses in the tributary streams which have partially closed, or else not completely removed by the melting and evaporation of the surface.