Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-03-19

with that which has remained in a crystal
lied condition, forms q porous snowy. mass, .
which gradually yiStransformed into sOlid;a
compact mass of ice, widely different from &
any ice formed upon the surface of waters
The ice upon the surface of water is formed
in layers. that in icebergs In granulated;
masses, which explains themannerin which
Immense icebergS disappear so rapidly. Ice
being transparent to heat the whole mass is
heated at a time, and meltingiand separat-
ing, lit all falls to pieces in particles as large
as walnuts. The transparency Office to heat
may. be illustrated in this way: place glass
between yourself and a stove, and though
you will see the fire, you will hardly feel
the heat, for the reason that glass is trans
ptrentl to light but opaque toiheat! But put
asimilar piece of ice in the same position,
and you willnotonly see the fire but feel the
heat, because ice is transparent to heat. The
lecturer went en- TO illustrate more fully by
diagrams on the blackboard the operation
of the atmosphere on icebeTgs and their
formation The whOleig glacier moves at a.
speciallrate. 1t moves in the first place be-
cause. of the slope; itmOveS In consequence
of the subsidence of the mass of snow, and
in consequence of the freezing of the was
ter, resulting from thaWing2 which, while
freezing, expands. You all know that frO-
zen water occupies more space than liquid
waterss fzyOu allow water to freeze in a.
bbttlewhich is eorked, the bottle will burst,
ter which accumulates in this ice is not
only in consequence of the melting, but
because of the rain which falls upon it, and,
pehetFates into the iljorons part of the ice.
This freezes and expands, and the conse-
quence of that expansion is notion, and
that motion takes place in the direction of
the least resistance. The, consequence of
all this is, that no glacier is stationary
mass but an eYer-moYing mass, and the,
rate of its motion is in proportion to the
bulk of the ice.i The middle part of the
ices which is thicker, moves faster than the
sides, which are thinner; and the middle
part which is porous, moves faster than the
upper part which. is porous i have had
stakes placed upon a parallel line across
the glacier at short intervals so that there
were about twenty stakes in each line upon.
the glaciers, and have had them measured
at repeated Intervals, and found that after
a year these stakes would present a curve
that is, the center had moved faster away
from the two sides, so that on the margin
the annual motion was hardly more than
ten feet, when in the center the motion had
been two hundred and fifty feet. Now the;
masses which fell upon the glacier will
move at the rate upon which the different,
parts of the glacier move in consequences
of their peculiar structure, and we shall
have certain bonlders which fall on this,
moving very slowly along the edge and
coming dAWn to the lower part of the gla-
cier after q very long period, and the same
will be the case with boulders on each side,
or. margin, of the glacier, which gradually
move down and become the center of the
common glacier, just as two sides of a river
which unite and flow into one basin become
the center ofTthe river. The two glaciers
meet, the right side of the one and the left
side of the other unite, and we have here
the main boulders, which are in the center,
and which move at the rate of thecenter so.
that all the loose naateriel which accumulate
on the center are moved down at the rate
OF a foot perhaps q day, at the average rate
of $50 teeE a year, so that in ten years they
will have moved $500 feet; in hundred
years 25,000 feet; SO that you see how rap.
idly these boulders will be transferred to
the lower end Of the glacier, and fall over
its edge and terminate here as con-
centric wall of loose material. These ac-
cumulations are called moraines.@ (The
Professor here illustrated the peculiar for,
nation of moraines by a diagram on the
black board.) Now another thing takes
place, the glacier moves in that manner
onward, fragments of the ice slip between
the ice and the rock, and we have consid-
erable accumulation of loose material be-
tween the ice and the bottom of the valley,
and as the glacier moves and is SO set
with stones upon its whole surface, these
extensive rocks CRATE upon the rocks, con-
stantly growing, furrowing, polishing and
scratching the whole Surface which is in
contact with the onward moving glacier,
and the effects of this mechanical agency
are so peculiar that they are easily distin-
guished from any other kind of abrasion.
L have frequently gone under glacier
through the cracks in the mass and have
seen the lower surface of the glacier stud
ded with fragments of rock, set in ice in a
manner which prevented their moving,
and thus carried forward with the glacier
you see what tremendous mechanical
effect it will produce. 1t will polish down
the rock by the minute particles which
are reduced to powder and which consist
aot softer rocks ground easily to powder,
and stones set like diamonds in the ice will
make scratches and these scratches will be
deeper in proportion as the harder frag-
ments of the rocks are greater. And some.
times / have found the powder resulting
from the grinding Just in advance of the
mass that had produced the motion. still
remaining after a heavy frost. You see
that we have two signs by which the pres
ence of a glacier may be traced, even after
the ice may have disappeared one, the
peculiar kind of accumulation of loose ma
terials of rocks that nave come down from
the mountain and accumulated on the edges
of the ice and on the surface; and the pecu-
| liar kind OF grinding which the surface of
the rocks exhibit. Historically we have
evidence of the glaciers having been located
beyond the limits they now occupy. Trav-
elers of the fourteenth and fifteenth. centu-
ries, and more particularly the fnvestiga-
tors of the sixteenth century, who explored
| the Alps with a view of studying the phe-
nOmena of the glaciers, have left us records
of the extension of glaciers within the Alps,
and their statements say that where we
now have some glaciers there were larger
ones formerly; and according to their state
ments, one can trace the cOncentric term
inal moraines beyond the present bounda-
| ries of the glacier. In the valley from the
Goetre down to Lake LuZerne, you have
the same phenomena, aud if you follow the
other valleys of Switzerland either to the
castor the south, you see the same pbenom-
ena. There is very large mOraine which
!. spans the valley of Aar to such an extent
| that the lake owes its formation to the gla-
/ cier which once filled that valley. Follow
| the valley of the Aar down as far as Berne,
| and then you have colossal moraine. You
have thirteen miles which are known to
1 have formed within historical time. To
make a long story short, you see that these
| phenomena of the glacier have been placed
across the valley yofSwitzerland to the valley
of the Jura, nay, to the summit of the Jura
1 We have evidence that once glaciers Occu-
! pied the whole of the extent across the val
1 ley of Switzerland and abutting across the
! Jura. Now, the history of this study had
4 gone as far as this when it occurred to me
that Switzerland could not have been alone
so much colder than the rest of the world
but the adjoining countries must have
shared the temperature that existed there
to the extent of making these great glacia
heaps. When the valley of the Jura was
! tull of ice to the depth of three thousand
! feet, Germany, France, Italy, and the othel
4 adjoining countries could not have enjoyed
/ the temperature that.exists there now.
! was then / thought that if there was any
thruth in all these facts J should find gla
ciers in England. The Professor then sale
that as early as 1910 he started on hunting