The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1880-09-09
The Earth,s Changes.

The mystery and the magnitude Of
geological changes seem to relegate them
to the remote ages of convulsion and
cataclysm. Let us not be frightened.
We are in the midst of great changes,
and are scarcely conscious of it. We
have seen worlds in flames, and have felt
a comet strike the earth. We have seen
the whole coast of South America lifted
up bodily ten or fifteen feet and ietdown
again in an hour. We have seen the
Andes sink 900 feet in seventy years.
The Chinese possess authentic records of
changes in the location of great rivers
especially the Hoang-ho. This river
has changed its mouth two or three
times. Sometimes it discharges its waters
into the Gulf of Pechili and sometimes
into the Yellow sea. x = Vast trans
positions have also taken place in the
coast line of China. The ancient capital,
located, in oil probability, in an access
ible position near the center of the en-
pire, has now become nearly surrounded
by water. and its site is on the peninsula
of Corea. We nave seen the glaciers
make progress in their retreat and dis
appearance. An ice-peak of the Tyrol-
ese Alps has lowered eighteen and a half
feet in a few years. The Mer de Glace
is q hundred feet lower or thinner han
it was thirty years ago. At Chamounix
] conversed with the chief of the guides,
an old man who had recorded the phases
of the glaciers for more than fifty years.
He pointed out the limits of the Mer de
Glace and Glacier des Blossoms in 1913,
1919 and 1920. He showed me huge
powders which had formerly been de-
posted in the valleys near the term
mi of these glaciers. He pointed
ont the situations made on the
bounding walls of the glacier vail
leys. From these records I perceived
that these two great glaciers have re-
coded in fifty years moi less than half a
mile, and the volume of ice is lowered
at least two hundred feet. From the foot
of the Mer de Glace I traced the foot
steps of the receding glacier down the
valley of the Arveiron-down the valley
of the Arve-down the Arve all the Nay
to Geneva. Then I felt that 1 also had
gazed on the ancient glaciers. I had
seen how their stupendous work had
been done. I had come upon the earth
in time to see the continental glaciers of
Europe On their retreat up the gorges of
the Alps. I felt the Stone Folk drawn
down in time toward our own times. I
could look over the abyss of years, and
seize its span In my comprehension. We
are the witnesses of the retreat of the
glaciers. When the Stone Folk came to
Europe the southern border of the con-
~tinental ice field was, perhaps, on
the Rhine; now it is in Rus
STA and Siberia and Greenland.
Nor have the veritable glaciers
become extinct from the United States.
In the deep gulches of the Sierra Nevada
are sundry remnants of a glacier once
continent-wide. On these repositories
of ancient ice has accumulated the "dust
of ages" to wich the cosmical dust which
comes to us out of the depths OF space
has made contributions not inconsider-
able. But they lay there in their senes-
cence, to proclaim a chapter of past
events in American history-fossil
glaciers, as eloquent as a fossil world.
The truth is, we are not so far out of the
dust and smoke of antiquity as we had
supposed. Antiquity is at our doors
The rubbish of geological revolutions is
strewed about our feet. We are in the
midst of geological history. The Indiar
saw Lake Michigan spread its waters
over Illinois. We have seen cities grow
up where our children knew only {
swamp !; and our children will see the
swamp usurp the site of the lake which
nourishes it.-Prof. WincheU.