Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1874-09-03
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A COLD CoUNTRY.-Greenland is almost
continental in its dimensions, containing not
less than 100000 square miles, and is all a
bleak wilderness of ice and snow, save little
strip extending to "a degrees north latitude
along the western shore. The coasts are deep
ly indented with bays and fords, which inva-
riably terminate in glaciers The whole in
terror seems to be buried beneath great
depth of snow and ice, which loads up the
valleys and wraps over the hills. Nothing
can be more desolate than the interior. 1t is
one dead, dreary expanse of white, so far as
the eye can reach no living creature frequents
this wilderness, neither beast, bird nor insect.
The silence, deep as death, is broken only
when the warning storm arises to sweep be-
fore it the pitiless, binding snow. This rep
resents the state of the northern part of our
continent in the ice age. Some of the Green
land glaciers attain a vast size. DR.. Kane
reports the great Humboldt Glacier as sixty
miles wide at its termination. Its seaward
faces rises abruptly from the level of the wa
ter to a height of three hundred feet.
Since ice is lighter than water, whenever a
glacier enters the sea, the dense salt water
tends to buoy it up. The great tenacity of
the frozen mass enables it to resist the pres
sure for time. By and by, however, as the
ice reaches deeper water, its cohesion is over
come, and large segments are forced from its
terminal part and Aoated up from the bed Of
the sea, to sail away as icebergs. The g lacier
evidently crops under the water to considera.
BILE depths, or, so long as the force of cohesion
is able to resist the tendency of the salt water
to press it upward.
Although Greenland is said to be inhabited
upon upon the south and west coast, there is
record of an early settlement upon the side
toward Iceland, with which there has been no
communication for 400 years. The colony
was planted about 1000 A. D., and fourished
and maintained intercourse with its mother
country till the beginning of the fifteenth cen
tury. Since that time, owing to the setting
in of the arctic current, and the consequent
gradual increase Of ice upon the coast, the
colony became inaccessible, and the records
of it disappear from history. At various in
tervals between 1879, ETC., down to our own
time, the intrepid Danes have striven in vain
to reopen communication with their lost colo
ny. This emerald coast, with valleys we'll
stocked with reindeer and verdant glades, is
now shut in by the pitiless ice packs, and the
fate of its inhabitants ought to excite the i'll
terest of the world. 1t would be very inter
estiug to be informed Of the condition Of this
colony; whether the increasing cold has en-
arged the glaciers so as to push the dwellings
out to sea- or whether the habitations are still
standing and Il population has sprung up who
know Of the outside world only by tradition.
AN EDUCATED CH1NAMAN's IDEAs.-Hong
Chin Foo, Chinese exile, who has been edu,
Gated in the United States, has lectured in
Rochester. He said that, of all the people
the Chinese came in contact with, the Ameri-
cans were most liked. While hundreds of
young Cinnamon we're sent to this country to
be educated not one was ever sent to England
or France. The people who came to this
country as rule, did not properly represent
the Chinese nation. They were low and igno-
rant, and the treatment they received here
from the lower classes did not give them any
complimentary or truthful character of the
American people, He explained the reason
why American missionaries labored under
such great disadvantages in China. He said
that the Chinese had been taught by Confu-
cius to regard proprety Of conduct as of the
utmost Importance. There was but one way
for their clothes to be fashioned, one way III
which to sit, stand, walk, and but one formula
to be observed in the duties of life. In this
country the speaker had observed the utmost
freedom in these regards, and Americans ia
king their habits with them to China, greatly
shocked the sensibilities Of that nation. For
instance, they would speak to the ladies and
hand things to them-deeds which we're gross
insults in their eyes. Then they would hold
conversation with people of the lower classes,
which effectually debarred them from inter-
course with the upper circles of society.
THE MOTHER. is it that cheers the
weary and heavy laden mother who tolls ear
ly and late that her little ones may be fed ?
The golden beams of happy anticipation of
the future when her children are men and
women, able to care for her and themselves.
God only knows what she suffers, and how
the mothers love and instinct make her strong
to endure. When the covers arc snugly
around the dear little bodies, and rosy faces
speak the story Of gentle sleep, the widow, on
bended knee, thanks heaven for health and
strength, and prays that not one OF her dar.
lings shall be taken from her care. She will
work and slave to support her children, and If
at night she can gather them all around her
knee, and tell them of their father who lies
outin the cold churchyard, and of their Faith
er in Heaven, and the beautiful world He has
given them to enjoy-she will count all pri.
vations pleasures. After years of toll and
care the golden beams gather to crown the
brow of woman who is faithful to the last.
Her children strew her pathway with roses OF
love- Or, if one, or two, or all of them, are
nsensible to their obligations to her, and ev-
cry earthly thing seems fraught with bitter
ness, beams of gold make her radiant in i'm
mortal robes, and over there angels will glad
ly nestle in the warmth of her great mother
love.
CONSTRUCTIONS OF FISH PoNDs.-Dr. j.
H. Slack says: Use no wood whatever. |
have had an extended and expensive expert
ence in regard to fish ponds, and have always
found that stone or brick is cheapest in the
end. In building dam first lay up a line
of brick extending to within an inch or two
of the line of the top Of the dam. Now pile
your dirt on each side Of the wall and you can
bid defiance to the musk rats which have Of
ten in one night destroyed the accumulated
fishes of years. DO not trust to plank, the
vermin seem rather to enjoy eating their way
through them. The proportions of the dam
should be as follows: Let the breadth on the
top equal the height Thus if your dam is
ten en- feet high let the width of the top be ten
feet and that of the base thirty feet Face
the sluice way with stone or brick and let it
extend to the bottom of the pond. Place at
the outlet two sets of screens of galvanized
iron wire the uppermost being for the pur-