GLACIER BAY

scenic indentation, about 50 miles (80 km) long, on the coast of southeastern Alaska, U.S., about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Juneau. It contains a spectacular display of 16 active glaciers that descend from the lofty ice-draped St. Elias Range to the east and the Fairweather Range to the west. The bay, which is studded with many largely treeless islands that are used as rookeries by thousands of seabirds, has fjordlike inlets, which terminate at ice cliffs or sheer faces of the glaciers. Muir Glacier, perhaps the most famous of the ice rivers, rises 265 feet (81 m) above the water and is nearly 2 miles (3 km) wide. Glacier Bay was the descriptive name given to the striking locality by Captain Lester A. Beardslee of the U.S. Navy in 1880. The bay is the focus of the Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.