Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1879-07-25
The Ice Sea-

DR.. Hayes, in his sketch, "What a
snowflake may come to-" says:
"NoW it must be borne in mind that
an ice sea such as that of Greenland, is
not stationary mass, like rock, but is a
moving mass like water. What is il but
hardened Water2
Take the better known glaciers of the
Alps, by way of illustration, there we
find nler de glGce, from which are many
branches extending down the valleys
on every side. These are usually called
glaciers. They are ice streams, for they
flow downward through the valleys; and
are the means by which the ner de gldce,
or ice sea discharges itself, thus prevent,
ing an accumulation which would, but
for these ice-streams, become intermina
BILE. 1t is estimated that the mountain
SHOWS of the Alps would gather there al
the rate of ourthousand feet in thous
and years. This accumulation is, how
ever, prevented by natural law, for the
Creator, in the all-Wise dispensation of
His power, has made ice ductile, as if it
were fluid. Hence it flows, when on an
inclined plane, just as water flows, only,
of course, slower. An iee-stream is,
therefore, in effect, a river and drains
the mountain-ice of the Alps down to
the sea, as rivers drain the rains which
fall in other places. The Alpine ice
streams become, however, actual rivers
in the end; for as they flow down the
valleys in a continuous stream from the
mer de gLdce, the end reaches the base
of the mountains, where the temperI-
ture becomes comparatively warm, and
the end of the ice-stream is steadily
melted off, as a candle thrust slowly into
a heated stove. The water thus formed,
completes the circuit to the sea, as a real
river, and not an ice-river, the only diff
ference, however, in the flow and the
law of flow being the rate. The ice
moulds itself to its bed, as the river does.
When the bed is wide, it expands !;
when the bed is narrow it contracts and
thickens; when the descent is slight, ii
deepens; when rapid, it hu1Ties along
and becomes shoal. An iee-stream, like
river, has, therefore, its cascades, its
rapids, its broad lagoOns ESQ to speak,,
and its smooth, steady, ever-hOwing
places. 1t carries rocks along with it
upon its surface (which have been
hurled down upon it from the neighbor-
ing cliffs by the frost) as the river carries
sticks of wood, leaves, and other light
materials.
Greenland is only the Alps many
times magnifed-not in altitude, Of
course, but in extent of surface and the
quantity of mountain ice which it has
accumulated. The whole interior of that
continent, as we have seen, is in effect,
covered with an ice-sea, from which flow
ice-streams on either side down through
the valleys.
There is, however, one great point Of
difference between the Alpine ice
stream and the Greenland ice-sIream.
While the end of an Alpine ice-stream
melts in the warm air, at lower level
than that in which it was formed, the
Greenland ice-stream, on the other hand,
meets no such fate. The whole of
Greenland, from the sea upward to the
mountain-tops, has too low a tempera-
ture for that. Hence the ice-streams
pour all the way down to the sea, which
they usually reach at the head Of the
deep 'fords,' Thus does the sea take the
place of the air in the melting process.
But not exactly in the same manner.
The sea first breaks off mass from the
end of the Greenland ice-stream, and
gradually melts it, as it floats south with
the current.
This mass is the iceberg.
Both these processes, however, have
the same result-the final return of the
mountain SHOWS to their natural home
in the sea-