The Nevada Democrat., 1857-01-21

The following description of the Great Gla-
cler, taken from DR.. Kane's work, just publish
cd, 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
hating ground beyond Sunny George to the
north of latitude 100. A single cliff of green
stone, marked by the slaty limestone that once
encased it, rears itself from crumblcd base of
sandstone like the boldly chseled rampant of an
ancient city. AT its northern extremity, on the
brink Of deep ravne which has worn its way
among the ruins, there stands o solitary column
or minarettower, as sharply finished as If ii had
been cast for the Place Vendome. Yet the
length of the shaft alone is -four hundred and
eighty feet, and 1t rises on plinth or pedestal,
itself two hundred and eighty feet high.
remember well the 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 this
magnificent landmark. Those who are happily
familiar with the writings of Tcnnyson, and
have communed 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
itnlcS VI bilOst Ou DOuIu VI ucr VINO Ounclcu TO
oil the fortunes of the expedition; and at its
eastern cape spreads out the Great Glacier of
Humboldt. My recollections of the glacier are
very distinct The day was beautifully clear on
which first saw it, and | have number of
sketches made as we drove along in view of its
magnificent face. They disappont me, giving
too much white surface and badly fading dis
tances, the grandeur of the few bold and simple
lines Of nature being almost entirely lost.
will not attempt to do better by forid de-
scription. Men only rhapsodize 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
long curve from the low interior, the facts in
front intensely Illuminated by the sum- But
this line of cliff rose in q solid CLASSY wall three
hundred feet above the water-evel, with an un-
known. unfathomed depth belowit; 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
1t communicated, and from which it issued, was
an unsurveyed mer dc Slace; an ice-ocean, to the
eye of boundless Dimensions
IL was in full sight-the mighty crystal
bridge which connects the two continents of
America and Greenland. / say continents; for
Greenland, however insulated it may ultimate
~ prove to be, is in mass strictly CONTINENTAL
Its least possible axis, measured from Cape
Farewell to the line of this glacier, in the neigh
borhood of the eightieth parallel gives q length
of more than twelve hundred miles, not materi- |
ally less than that Of Australia from its North
ern to its Southern cape
Imagine now the centre of such continent,
occupied through nearly all its whole extent
by deep unbroken sea of ice, that gathers per
ennial increase from the watershed of vast
snow-covered mountains and all the precpita-
tons of the atmosphere upon its own surface
Imagine this. moving onward like great gla- !
cial river seeking outlets at every ford and val
ley, rolling icy cataracts into the Atlantic and
Greenland seas, and having at last reached the |
Northern limit of land that has borne il up
pouring out mighty frozen torrent into un-
known Arctic space
1t is thus, and only thus, that we must form n
Just conception of a phenomenon like this Great
Glacier. l had looked in my own mind for such
an appearance should everbe fortunate enough
10 reach the Northern coast of Greenland, but
now that 1t was before me could hardly realize
u. had recognized in my quiet library at
nome, the beautiful analogies which Forbes and
studer have developed between the glacier and
he river; but could not apprehend at first this
complete substitution of ice for water
III was slowly that the conviction dawned on I
le that was looking upon the counterpart of !
he great river-system of Arctic-Asia and Amer j
"a. Yet here were no water-feeders from the e
outh. Every particle of moisture had its orr $
N within the polar circle and had been CON Il
'fted INTO Ice. There were no waste alluvions al
forest or animal traces borne down by the re
uid torrents. Here was plastic, moving, a.
ni-solid mass. celebrating life, swallowing up in
ks and islands, and ploughing its way with
sslstable march through the crust of an in de
ting sea-"