The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1879-11-07
AN ALASKA GLACIER.
PIuckipg FloweSs from the Edge or
the afshty Mass Of Ice.
RFona tha aan RYanslsno Rulla,in


PIuckipg EIeweSs from the Edge or
the aishty Mass Of Ice,
From the San Francisco Bullstin,
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 10 |
come and zee. After we are fairly be- |
tween the two majestic mountain rocks |
that guard the gate Of the ford, the view |
that was unfolded fixed every eye In |
wondering admiration. No written
words, however builded together, can |
convey anything like an adequate con.
ception OF Its sublime grandeur-the
noble simplicity and the iineness Of the
sculpture OF the walls; their magni6.
cent proportions, their cascade, garden,
and forest adornments; the placid water
between them; the great white Ice wall
stretching acres In the middle, and the
snow-laden mountain peaks beyond.
Standing In the gateway of this glori-
Gus temple, and regarding 1t only a. q
picture, Its outlines may easily be traced
There Is the water foreground of q 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 q great river.
At the head the water il bounded by O
barrier wall of blush. white Ice, from
Eve to six hundred feet high, O few
mountain tops crowned with snow ap.
pearing beyond 1t. On either hand
stretches series Of majestic granite
rocks from three 10 four thousand feet
high, In some places bare, in some for.
rested, and we'll patched with yellow.
green chaparral and howery 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, o Yosemite Valley In
process of formation, the modelling and
sculpture of the walls nearly completed
and we'll painted.
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 detri.
tus, a hundred yards or 30 In width |;
but on 80 grand a scale are all the mag
nitudes of the valley that we afterward
found it to be q mile or more.
The captain ordered the Indians to get
out the canoe, and take as many of US
ashore az wished to 60, and accompany
us to the glacier also, in case we should
desire them to do 30. Padding to the
nearest and dryest looking portion of
the moraine, we stepped ashore, but
gladly wallowed back into the canoe;
for the gray mineral mud, a paste made
from the mountain meal, and kept un.
stable by the tides, at once took US in,
swallowing us feet foremost. Our next
attempt, made nearer the middle of the
valley, was successful, and we soon
found ourselves on good gravelly ground.
l made haste in direct line for the huge
ice wall, which seemed to recede as we
approached. The only difficulty we met
was a network Of Icy streams, at the
largest of which we halted, not willing
to get wet in fording. The Indian we
/
the difficulty on his back.
At length, after being ferried in this
way over several more of these outrush.
ing glacial streams, we reached the
glorious crystal wall, along which We
passed, adniring Its noble architecture
the play of light in the rift and angles
and the structure Of the ice as displayed
in the less fractured sections, finding
fresh beauty every step. BY dint oil
patient zig-zagging and doubling among
the creyices, and vigorous use of oul
ak in cutting steps on the slopes and
cliffs, we made our way up over the
snow and back q mile or 30 over the
cascadipg brow to height of about zoe
feet above the base of the wall.
The whole front and brow of this ma
jestic glacier is gashed and sculptured
into q maze of yawning chasms and
crevasses, and bewildering variety oil
strange architectural forms, appalling to
the strongest nerves, bat novel and beau
tiful beyond measure--clusters of gilt.
tering lance.tipped spires, gables, and
obelisks, bold outstanding bastions and
plain mural olifis, adorned along the tor
with fretted cornice and battlement
while every gorge and crevasse,
chasm and hollow was filed with
light. The day was warm,
and back on the broad waving
bosom OF the glacier water streams were
outspread in a complicated network, each
in its own frictionless channel cut down
through the porous decaying ice of the
surface into the quick and living blue,
and flowing with grace of motion and
ring and gurgle and flashing of light To
be found only on the crystal hills and
dales of a glacier.
Along the sides we could see the
mighty food grinding against the granite
with tremendous pressure, rounding the
outswelling bosses, deepening and
smoothing the retreating hollows, and
shaping every portion Of the mountain
walls into the forms they were meant to
have, when in the fulness of time the
Ice tool should be lifted and set aside by
the sun. Back two or three miles from
the front the current is now probably
1900 feet deep; but when we examine
the walls, the grooved and rounded
features, so surely glacial, show that In
the earlier days Of the ice age they were
all ovefswept, this glacier having flowed
from 5000 to 1000 feet above its present
level.
Threading our way back across the
crevasses and down the blue cliffs, we
snatched few flowers from warm spot
on the edge of the ice, FLASHED across tne
moraine streams, and were padded
aboard.