Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1873-07-10

comes upon the sea. But here It does
not stop. Pushing back the water, it
makes it's own coast-line, and, moving
still onward, accommodating itself to
every inequality in the bed of the sea,
as it has before done to the surface OF
the land, filing up the wide bay or
ford, expanding where it expands, mar
rowing where it narr0ws, wallowing |
up the islands in its slow and steady !
course, it finally reaches many miles be- I
yond the original shore line. !
Aud now it has attained the climax |
of its progress. When, long ages ago,
after pouring over the sloping land, it
finally reached the coast, and looked
down the bay which it was ultimately
to fill up, its face was many hundreds
of feet high. Gradually it sank below
the line Of the waters a. it moved on.
ward, and finally it's front has almost
wholly disappeared.
A block of fresh.water ice floating in
sea-water rises above the surface to the
extent of One.eight of its weight and
bulk; seven-eights of it are below the
surface. The cause Of this is too we'll
known to need more than . passing
aware that water, in the act of freezing,
expands, and that in the crystal con-
dition water occupies about one-tenth
more space than when in fluid state
and hence when ice floats in the fresh
water from which it was formed, one
tenth of it is exposed above, while tho
remaining nine-tenths are beneath the
surface. When this same fresh-water
ice which, it will be remembered, is
the composition of the glacier, il
thrown into the sea, the proportion of
that above to that below being
changed from one and nine to one and
seven, is due to tho greater density of
the sea water, caused by the salt which
it holds in solution. Now it will be ob-
vious that, as the glacier continues to
press further and further into the sea,
the. natural equilibrium of the ice
must ultimately become disturbed
that in the end of the glacier is forced
further down into the water than it
would be if it were free from restraint,
and at liberty to float according to
the properties acquired by congelation.
The moment that more than seven
eights of its front are below the water
line, the glacier will, like an apple
pressed down by the hand iu u pail of
water, have a tendency to rise until
it receives its natural equilibrium.
Now it will be remembered that the
glacier is long stream of ice, many
miles in extent, and although the end
may have this tendency to rise, yet it
is, for time held down firmly by the
continuity of the whole mass.
At length, however, As the end of the
glacier bu1es itself more and more in
the water, the tendency to r1se becomes
stronger and stronger, aud finally the
force thus generated is sufficient to
break off q fragment, which, once free
is buoyed up to the level that is natural
to it. This fragment may be solid
cube half mile through, or even of
much greater dimensions. This dis.
ruption is attended with a great dis.
turbance of the waters, and with viO--
lent sounds, which may be heard for
many miles but floating now free in
the water, the oscillations which the
sudden change impaired to itgradually
s1bside; and fteracquirlng its natural
equilibrium the rJstal mass drifts
slowly out to sea with the current and
ls called an iceberg.
And thus the glacier has filled its
part in the great law of circulation and
change.
The dew-drop, distilled upon the
tropic palm-leaf, falling to the earth,
has reappeared in the gurgling spring
of the primeval forest, has flown with
the rivulet to the river, and with the
river to the ocean, has then vanished
into the air, and waited n0rthward by
the unseen wind, has fallen as O downy
snowflake upon the lofty mountain,
where, penetrated by solar ray, it
has become again little globule of
water, and the chilly wind, following
the sun, has converted this globule
into crystal, aud the crystal takes up
it's wandering couse again, seeking the
ocean.
But where the movement was once
rapid it is now slow; where it then
flowed with the river miles in an hour,
it will now flow with the glacier not
more in centuries and where it once
entered calmly into the sea, it will now
join the world of waters in the midst
of q violent convulsion. >.t
We have thus seen that the iceberg
is the discharge of the Arctic river;
that the Arctic river is tho glacier, aud
TINT the glacier is tho accumulation of
the frozen vapors of the air. We have
watched this river moving on its slow
and steady course from the distant
hills, until it has at length reached the
sea and We have seen the sea tear
from the slothful stream a monstrous
| I'M ALL l. -
own again. Freed from the shackles
which it has borne in silence through
unnumbered centuries, this newborn
child of the ocean rushes with a wild
bound into the arms of the parent
water, where it is caressed by the surf
and nursed into life again, aud the
crystal drops receive their long lost
freedom. and fly away on the laughing
waves to catch once more the sunbeam
and to run against their course through
the long cycle of the ages.
And the iceberg has more significance
than the great flood which the glaciers
southern sister, tho broad Amazon,
pours into the ocean from the slopes
of the Andes and the mountains of
Brazil. Solemn, stately, and deep, in
tempest and in calm, it rides the deep.
The restless waves resound through Its
broken archways and thunder against
it's adamantean walls. Clouds, impene-
trable as those which shielded the
graceful form Of Arethusa, olothe it in
the morning under the bright blaze
OF the noon-(lay sun. it is armored in
gliStering silver it rolls itself in tho
gorgeous cOl0rs Of tho evening; and in
the silent night the heavenly orbs
are lnirrored in it's CLASSY surface.
Drifting SHOWS whirl over it in the
winter, and the sea gulls swarm aronnd
it in the summer. TEc last rays Of
departing dny linger upon its i
lofty spires anl when the long
Darkness is past, it catches the
gleam of the returning light, and
its gildel dome heralds the coming
MORN The elements combine to rem
t.ler tribute to its. matchless beauty. Its
Iona voice is waited TO the shore, and
the earth rolls it from crag to crag
among tho echoing hills. The sun
steals through the vail of radiant foun-
tains which futter over it in the sum-
mel. winds, and the RAINBOW on it's pal