Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1872-04-25
Glaciers.

Webster's dictionary tells US that a
glacier "is field or immense mass of
ice, formed in deep but elevated valleys,
or on the sides of the Alps or other
mountains" But perhaps we can bet
ter imagine what it is by thinking what
river as wide and deep, though not as
long as the Hudson, would be if frozen
into one solid mass of ice, and instead
of having a fat surface were to round
up highest in the middle, rough and
broken as the ocean in a storm. We
shall not tell you now how these "ice
rivers,n which are found mostly in
Greenland, Iceland, Spitzbergen, and
Switzerland commence and grow. That
is one of the very interesting things you
big boys and girls find in your "physical
Biographies and that you little folks
will be delighted to study about when
you are older. And how many such
things there are, and how happy you
will be when you can learn them all
We can only select one glacier, and
tell you little about it, and that we
hope will give you some idea of all the
others.
In the same valley that is now cover
ed with the glacier of Sermitsialik in
| Greenland. there were once green grass,
| sparrows chirruping among the branches
of the stunted trees, and herds of rein
deer browsing upon its abundant pas
lures. This must have been about two
hundred and fifty years ago, and natu-
ralists could tell US about the progress
of the glacier since that time when the
ice-stream first began to travel towards
the sea, which it has now reached
through the gorge in the mountain
chain ten miles back from the shore
For, strange though it may seem, this
flood of solid ice is always steadily NOV
ing, whether over steepest precipices or
across level plains, carrying with 1t the
largest masses of rock, and grinding
smaller ones to dust; overwhelming the
green pastures and the stunted trees,
until at last it reaches the sea. But even
here it does not stop.
The bed of the sea is but continue.
ton of the same inclined plane as the
bed of the valley, and the glaciers on.
ward course is continued. 1t pushes
back the water, it makes a coast-line o.
ice where there had been beach, anC
stretches white wall from one side o
the bay to the other. AS it flows on
ward it gets into deeper and deeper
water, its foot still resting on the bottom
of the sea. Thus the icy wall sink
gradually down as it moves along, anc
in course of time it goes almost out o
sight. Then it gets beyond its depth
But ice is lighter than water, and it
nature is to float, and to enable it to do
SO break must occur, as the ice viii
not bend, and finally crack, beginning
at the bottom, is opened with fearful
/ crash, and when completed to the tol
5 huge fragment is detached. Thi
fragment, small as it is compared witt
the glacier from which it is broken, i
/ really of enormous size, and when
: floats grandly off we call it an iceberg
! though the Greenlanders say it is tn
7 "calf Of the glacier"
2 Glaciers have long been COUNTIES
5 among the wonders of the world, an
l many naturalists, for the sake of addin
r to our knowledge concerning them, a
: we'll as many travellers for the mere low
t of adventure, have incurred fearful
i dangers in exploring them. The SUI
faces of these ice rivers are scanned wit
great cracks, or crevaSses as they ar
called, hundreds of feet deep, whicl
can only be crossed on frail and slipper
e bridges of ice where a single misste
S would be instant death to the DARN
}, explorer.