Canada’s glaciers have been consistently retreating since 1887. And considering the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and NASA recently announced that 2015 was the hottest year on record, the recession is likely to continue.

In November 1948, the Canadian Geographical Journal published an illustrated piece about the federal government’s annual glacier survey, which at that time was in its infancy.

“Although glacier observation in Canada under governmental direction began only in 1945, sporadic observations and studies of the variations of a number of glaciers in the mountainous regions of British Columbia and Alberta have been made by members of the Alpine Club of Canada over a long period of years, the first on record being for the year 1887…. These observations reveal a general and practically continuous recession since 1887.”

The study — and it does read more like a scientific study than a story — looks at various representative glaciers in the Canadian Cordillera (read it here). Although the prose is somewhat dry, it was accompanied by intriguing glacier photos, a few of which are shown below with their original captions. If replicated today, these photos would no doubt show much less ice.