Sharp County record., 1880-12-30
o dear imaginings Of day and night,
THE SWISS GLACIERS.

the adjoining lyrOl, which nave maue
those countries famous. No scene is
more striking or beautiful than these
great ice-riverS, placed often amid fer
tile and wooded valleys, where there
are growing grain fields, fruit trees in
bloom, smiling meadows and human
habitatiOns.
Many ages ago, greater part OF the
surface of the earth was covered with a
sea of snow and ice, Just as Greenland
and certain parts of Switzerland are to-
day. All the minor ridges and valleys
of Greenland are constantly concealed
under huge layers Of ice and snow. The
broad wastes of Greenland ice 90 on
slipping forward and down to the sea,
where, breaking loose in mountainous
masses, they sail away rs iCebergs-the
terror and dread of the northern Allan
tic seas. Not many months ago, great
steamship, the ARIZONA" ran into an
iceberg and broke away portion OF
her bow. Indeed, in many cases, yes
sells have been utterly wrecked by Ice
berrs. These floating mountains OF ice
are often of enormous size. Some OF
them have been grounded in Bafin's
Bay, where the water is 1000 feet deep.
Another, seen by a French explorer in
the South Sea, presented a mass OF ice
nearly equal to the greatest of the Swiss
glaciers, it being thirteen miles long
and with walls 100 feet above the water.
As ice floats with but One-ninth OF its
bulk raised above the surface Of the
sea, the term floating mountain does
not seem to be an eXaggeratiOn. In
1912 the steamer Acadia passed one
in the Atlantic ocean that was 400 to
500 feet above water, and therefore, on
q moderate calculation, some 5000 feet
below the surface-a total height equal
to that of the highest peak of the Green
Mountains.
Glaciers are produced by the gradual
changing into ice of the peculiar granu-
lar snow that falls in the high Alpine
region, above the snow limit Of $4,000
feet. The height at which vegetation
ceases in Switzerland is about 5000
feet, though Professor Agassiz found
tuft of lichen growing on the only rock
that pierced through the icy summit of
the Jungfrau mountain, nearly $4,000
feet above the sea. The snow, as it
showers down, is as perfectly dry as so
much fine flour, and the ice formed from
it is very different from our pond Or
river ice, or sea ice, called iCe-hOe. The
snow not only falls in winter but from
time to time throughout the seasons.
Melting during the day it is at night
frozen into kind of puddng-stone ice,
in rough cakes, which gradually or sud
denly Slip below to form the first por-
ton of the glacier. As they collect in
very loose order they move slowly down,
melting and freezing together until
they become changed into a mass of
clear blue ice at the lowest point of the
glacier 1t is curious to examine one,
starting upward from where the ice is
transparent and blue, and find it gradu-
ally becoming less compact, less clear,
more light and granular, until at the
highest point, where it is snow, it is as
light and shifting as down.
Very large quantities of rock and
broken material from the tops of the
Alps are carried down by the glaciers,
either quite into the low valleys or to
the lodges along the way. These accu-
mutations on the side of q glacier ap-
pear, like the embankments of a canal |
or river, asif built to prevent the glacier
from spreading. In the lower portion |.
of Switzerland, called the Jura, are to
be found blocks of stone, some of them /.
as large as cottages, transported there |
by glaciers from distance of fifty miles. |
The rocks, broken material and dust are |.
so thickly spread over the tops of most
ice-rivers that their true character is
concealed and at a little distance, or
even in walking over them, not strip
of ice can be seen for some distance.
The surface of others, however, are clear
like the Rhone glacier, and dazzling to
the eyes in a strong sunlight.
Strange sights appear in plenty as
you wander over one of these huge ice
rivers. Large slabs of stone, supported
on legs of ice, are frequently to be met
with, the leg of ice having been saved
from melting by the stone. (These
blocks of ice make very convenient ta-
bles, too, on which to spread out a
lunch.) Whenever glaciers course
takes it over a precipice or sharp de-
cline, the surface is split up into innu-
merable huge ice-needles and ice-pyra-
mids, some standing at an angle, ap-
pearing just ready to tOpple over and
crush any one rash enough to approach
them. Occasionally, at a sharp decline,
the ice river will break in two, the for
ward part shooting ahead and the rear
portion gradually, or as quickly, closing
up the gap. A hamlet in the st. Mich
olas valley has been, on several occa-
sions, partially destroyed by the falling
of the Bis glacier. At one time -S60-=-
UJU,UUU OF cubic feet of ice fell in an in
slant toward the hamlet, the agitation
of the air causing houses to be twisted
around and their roofs torn off, while
many others were crushed like almond
shells. In speaking of scene like this,
an eyewitness saws: 1T made its pres
ence known by a frightful noise; every
thing around US appeared to move of
Itself. Rocks, apparently solidly fixed