The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-03-02

GREENLAND. - Its Glaciers and Decreasing
Temperatures" assembled once more TO leVel
plane says DR.. Hayes, reaching oo e1S faai
miles from the coast at an altitude of 5000 ieet.
was SGT upon by y tempest. The Temperature
sank to thirty-four deg below zero. Nothlng
could be more terrible than a wind under.such
blast Mercury hardened almost to the con
sistency of lead. The moisture of the breath
froze on the beard in solid Jumps of ice. Inc
drifting snow which came whirling along tue
lev plane was like tho sand-clouds of the
desert, which often times everwhelm travellers.
There was chance for life except in Hight.
1t would be difficult to infiict greater torture
upon man than to expose him 10 s"cn
storm. First comes alarm, then pain, then
lack of perception. One of my comrades said !:
Il cannot go any farther. do not want TO !;
/" 1 am no longer cold; am quito warm again;
shall we not camp ~ There was great need OF
haste and cxertion, or we should all nave per
ishetl. The whole continent of Greenland is,
saw, twelve hundred miles long by six hum
bred broad. This gives seven hundred ana
twenty thousand miles of superficial area; ana
assuming the ice, which covers the greater
part of it, to have the very moderate average
depth of five hundred 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 changein CHI
mate since then, observe that in the old
chronicles of those ancient Mortimer, there Is
very little mention made of ice as a disturbing
element in navigation. From the glati ers come
glacier is not habitable. The colony was de-
stroyed by the Skraellings, savages now re-
presented by the Esqninauk, Who have held
undisturbed possession of the country till now,
when they are dwinding 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 wilderness is y quaint,
happy place, where everybody is aud smells
more or less fishy, where the women wear fur
boots and trousers, do not know that petit
coats exist, but as fond Of jewelry as
their southern sisters, and are pelfect adopts
in dancing and Irritation. Tho little COM
pany on board the Panther had pleas
ant time of it in the d" ford of the deserted
homcs," before they steamed away southwark
to that of SermitiiaIik, 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 mountains are lofty it never rains
upon them, and fresh layer of snowis laid
upon them every year. Enormous quantities
break loose and roll down the mountain sides
in avalauches 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 n very simple
process, and thc ice flows to the sea- In many
places i'll this awful country the valleys are 50
filled that they have become level with the
submits of the mountains, and there Is
desert waste of whteuss, smooth as the sea,
and void of life Sahara.