Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1872-08-13
Glaciers and Decreas.
ing Temperature,

81 assembled once to such level plane, - saws
Dr. Hayes, reaching eighty miles from the
coast at an altitude of ), 900 feet, was set upon
By tempest. The temperature sank to 81 de-
grees below zero. Nothing could be more terri
BILE than wind under such circumstances ex-
cept perhaps a furnace blast. Mercury hard
ened almost to the consistency OF lead. The
moisture of the breath froZe on the beard in
solid Jumps of ice. The drifting snow which
came whirling along the icy plane was like the
sand clods OF the desert, which often times
oyerwhelm travellers. There was no chance for
life except in fight. 1t would be difficult to in
hict greater torture upon a man than to ex-
pose him to such storm. First come
alarm, then pain, then lack of perceptions
One OF my comrades sad: 81 cannot 20 any
farther; l do not want to; am sleepy; cannot
walk" Another said: 81 am no longer cold; /
am quite warm again; shall we not camp?"
There was great need of haste and exertiop,
or we should all have persisted. The whole
continent OF Greenland is, say, twelve hundred
miles long by six hundred broad. This gives
seven hundred and twenty thousand square
miles of superficial area, and assuming the ice,
which covers the greater part OF it, to have the
feet, we have grand total of seventy thousand
cubic miles of ice. All this vast accumulation
is the property of Denmark.
In evidence OF the change in climate since
then we observe that in the old chronicles of
those ancient Northmen, there is very little
mention made OF ice as a disturbing element in
navigation. From the glaciers come the ice.
bergs, and ford which receives a glacier is not
Labitable. The colony was destroyed by the
Skraelings, savages now represented by the
Esquimaux, who have held undisturbed posses
sion OF the country until now, when they are
dwindling away. There is no story of ruin and
decay more sad than this; the ruthless hand OF
nature has nowhere pressed SO heavily upon the
children OF men. The little town in the wilder
ness is quaint, happy place, where everybody
is and smells more or less fishy, where the wo-
men wear fur boots, and trowsers, do not know
that petticoats exist, but are as fond of iewelry
as their southern sisters, and perfect adopts in
dancing and Irritation. The little company on
board the Panther had a pleasant time Of in the
"ford OF the deserted homes" before they
steamed away southwark to that of Sermitlia-
hk, which means "the place of ice," there to
witness phenomena such as are not TO be seen
elsewhere in the whole known world.
In Greenland the snow falls dry. The noun
tains are lofty; il never rains upon them, and
fresh layer OF snow is laid upon them every year.
Enormous quantities break loose and roll down
the mountain sides in avalanche; but the
amount is small in comparison with the deposit.
The glaciers are the means of drainage of these
great snow fields, which are turned TO ice by a
very simple process, and the ice flows to the
sea. In many places in the awful country the
valleys are so filed that they have become level
with the SUBMITS of the mountains, and there
is desert waste Of wilderness, smooth as the
sea, and void of life as Sahara.