The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1879-11-07
An ALAsKAN GLACIER.

An ALASKAN GLACIER.
Piucking Flowers from the Edge Of the
mighty Mass OF Ice.
From the San FRANCISCO Bulletin.]
Arriving opposite the mouth of the
ford, we steered straight inland between
wooded shores surprisingly beautiful,
and the grand glacier came in sight,
lying at home in its massive granite val
ley, glowing in the early sunshine, and
extending q most noble invitation to
come and see. After We are fairly be-
tween the two majestic mountain rocks
that guard the gate of the ficrd, the
view that was unfOlded fixed every eve
in wondering admiration. No written
words, however builded together, can
convey any thing like an adequate con-
ception of its sublime granGeur--the no
BILE simplicity and the fineness of the
sculpture of the walls; their magnificent
proportions, their cascade, garden, and
forest adOrnments; the placid water
between them; the great white ice-wall
stretching across in the middle, and the
snow-laden mountain peaks beyond.
Standing in the gateway of this glo-
rious temple, and regarding it only as a
picture, its outlines may easily be traced.
There is the water foreground of pale,
milky-blue color, from the suspended
rock-mud issuing from beneath the
grinding glacier - one smooth sheet
sweeping back five or six miles like one
of the lower reaches of great river.
At the head the water is bounded BY
barrier wall of bluish-white ice, from
five to six hundred feet high, o few
mOuntain-tOps crowned with snow ap-
pearing beyond it. On either hand
stretches series of majestic granite
rocks from three to four thousand feet
high, in some places bare, in some
fOrested, and well patched with yellow
green chaparral and fiOwery gardens,
especially about half way up from top to
bottom, and the whole built together in
a general, varied way into walls, like
those of Yosemite Valley, extending far
beyond the ice barrier, one immense
brow appearing beyond the other, while
their bases are buried in the glacier.
This is, in fact, a Yosemite Valley in
process of formation, the modelling and
sculpture of the walls nearly completed
and well planted.
Sailing directly up to the sunken brow
of the terminal moraine, we then
seemed to be separated from the glacier
only by a low, tide-leveled strip of de-
tritus, a hundred yards or so in width;
but on SO grand scale are all the mag
nitudes of the valley that We afterward
found it to be a mile or more.
The Captain ordered the Indians to
get out the canoe, and take as many of
us ashore as wished to 90, and accom-
pany us to the glacier also, in case We
should desire them to do so. Padding
to the nearest and dryest looking pOr-
ton of the mOraine, we stepped ashore,
but gladly wallowed back into the
canoe; for the gray mineral mud, q
paste made from the mountain meal,
and kept unstable by the tides, at once
took us in, swallowing us feet foremost.
Our next attempt, made nearer the mid
die of the valley, was successful, and We
soon found ourselves ON good grayelly
ground. made haste in direct line
for the huge ice wall, which seemed to
recede as we approached. The only
difficulty We met was q network of icy
streams, at the largest of which we
halted. not willing to get wet in fording.
The Indian we had with us promptly
carried us over the difficulty on his
back.
At length, after being ferried in this
way over several more of these outrush-
ing streams, we reached the glorious
crystal wall, along which we passed,
admiring its noble architecture, the play
of light in the riffs and angles, and the
structure of the ice as displayed in the
less fractured sections, finding fresh
beauty every step. By dint of patient
zigzagging and doubling among the
crevices, and a vigorous use of our akin
cutting steps on the slopes and cliffs,
we made our way up over the snow and
back a mile or so over the cascading
brow to height of about 700 feet above
the base of the wall. e. II
The whole front and brow of this ma
jestic glacier is gashed and sculptured
into a maze of yawning chasms and
crevasses, and bewildering variety of
strange architectural forms, appalling
to the strongest nerves, but novel and
beautiful beyond measure-cMsters Of
lance-tipped spires, gables.
and obelisks, oOld outstanding bastiOns
and plain mural cliffs, Adorned along
the top with fretted corniee and battles
ment, while every gorge and crevasse,
chasm and hollow was filed with light.
Tho day was warm, and back on the
broad waving bosom Of the glacier wa
ter streams were 0utspread in . cOmpli-
Gated network, each in its own friction
less channel cut down through the !.
porous decaying ice of the surface into
the quick and living blue, and flowing
with q grace of motion and o ring and
gurgle and flashing of light to be found
only ON the crystal hills and dales of q
glacier. ar 01 .l,H .s- ...i.i.
Along the sides we ccSid see the
mighty flood grinding against the gran
tie with tremendous pressure, rounding
The or:swelling bosses, deepening and
the retreating hollows, and
shaping every portion of the mountain
walls into the forms they were meant to
have, when in the fullness of time the ice
zoo should be lifted and set aside by the