The Trinity journal., 1857-02-07
The Great Glacier.

The following description of the Great
Glacier, taken from DR. Kane's work, just
published, giving an account Of his search
for Sir John Franklin, will be read with
interest:
| was still more struck with another of
the same sort in the immediate neighborhood
of my halting ground beyond Sunny George
to the north of latitude 10 deg. A single
cliff of greensboro, marked by the slatv lime
stone that once encased it, rears itself from
a crumbled base of sandstone like the boldly
chisseled rampant of an ancient city. At
its northern extremity on the brink Of a
deep ravine which has worn its way among
the ruins, there stands solitary column or
manaret-tower, as sharply finished as if it
had been cast for the Place Vendome. Yet
the length of the shaft alone is four hund-
red and eighty feet, and it rises on plinth
or pedestal, itself two hundred and eighty
feet high.
remember well the first emotions of
my party as it first broke upon our view
Cold and sick as l was | brought back
sketch of it, which may have interest for
the reader, though it scarcely suggests The
imposing dignity Of the magnificent land
mark. Those who are happily familiar with
the writings of Tennyson, and have com
muned with his spirit in the solitude of a
wilderness, will apprehend the impulse that
inscribed the scene with his name.
Still beyond this comes the archipelago
which bears the name of our brig, studded
with the names Of those on board of her
who adhered to all the fortunes of the ex-
pedition and at its eastern cape spreads
out the Great Glacier of Humboldt Ny
recolections Of the glacier are very distinct
The day was beautifully clear on which first
saw it, and | have a number Of sketches made
as we drove along in view Of its magnif-
cent face They disappoint me, giving too
much white surface and badly-fadng distan-
ces, the grandeur of the few bold and simple
lines of nature being entirely lost.
| will not attempt to do better by florid
description Men only rhapsodze about
Niagara and the ocean. My notes speak
simply of the long ever-shining line Of cliff,
diminished to a wellpointed wedge in the
perspective ; and, again, of the face of
glistening ice, sweeping in q long curve
from the low interior, the facets in front in
tensely Illuminated by the SUM- But this
line of cliff rose in a solid CLASSY wall three
hundred feet above the water-level, with ar
unknown, unfathomed depth below it and
its curved face sixty miles in length from
Cape Agassiz to Cape Forbes, vanished into
unknown space at not more than single
days railroad travel from the Pole The
interior with which it communicated, and
from which it issued, was all nnsuryeyed
mer de glace, an ice-ocean, to the eye Of
boundess dimensions.
1t was in full sght-the mighty crystal
bridge which connects the two continents of
America and Greenland | say continents :;
for Greenland, however insulated it may ul-
timately prove to be, is in mass strictly con
tncntal Its least possible axis, measured
from Cape Farewell to the line of this gla-
cier, in the neighborhood of the eightieth
parallel, gives a length of more than twelve
hundred miles, not materially less than that
Of Australia from its Northern to it's South
ern cape.
Imagine now the center of such q CONT
nent, occupied through nearly its whole cx-
tent by deep unbroken sea of ice, that
gathers perennial increase from the wafer
shed of vast snOw-covercd mountains and all
the precipitations OF the atmosphere upon
its own surface. Imagine this, moving on
ward like great gIacical river, seeking out
lets at every ford and valley. rolling icy cat
aracts into the Atlantic and Greenland
seas, and having at last reached the North
ern limit of land than has borne it up, pour
ing out a mighty frozen torrent into un-
known Arctic space
1t is thus, and only thus, that we must
form jnst conception of a phenomenon Ike
this Great Glacier had looked in my
own mind for such an appearance should |
ever be fortunate enough to reach the
Northern coast of Greenland, but now that
it was before me | could hardly realize it
| had recognized in my quiet library at
home, the beautiful analogics which Forbes
and Studcr have developed between the
glacier and the river but could not ap-
prehcnd at first this complete substitution of
ice for water.
1t was slowly that the conviction dawned
on me that / was looking upon the the coun-
terpart Of the great river-system of Arctic
Asia and America. Yet here were no water
feeders from the South Every particle of
woisture had its origin within the polar circle
and had been converted into ice There
were no vast alluvians, no forest, or animal
traces borne down by liquid torrents. Here
was a plastic, moving semi-solid mass, oblt-
Grating life, swallowing up rocks and islands,
and ploughing its way with irresistible march
4 4
THEATRIcAIs IN THE FAR West. West
ern theatricalS are of rather an unique char
actcr. We clip from an Iowa paper the
following
First night of the opening of the Red
Barn First night of the dancing goat,
who goes through the intrcacies of the CO.
tllion like a fellow critter The perfor-
nance of the goat will be followed by an