The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-07-06
THE EARTIz:s Es
Geographical Commissions in Progress
All tho Time. Even in Our Own Day.
From Winchell'S Prc-Adamites.'

lchi wa -
The mystery and the magnitude of geolog-
ical 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 con-
scious 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 let
down again in an hour. We have seen the
Andes sink two hundred and twenty feet in
seventy years. The Chinese possess anthem
tic 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 Vel
low Sea.
Vast transpositions have also taken place
in the coast line of China. The ancient cap
ital, located, in all probability, in an inacces-
sible position near the center of the empire,
has now become nearly surrounded by water,
and its site is on the peninsula of Corea.
We have seen the glaciers make progress in
their retreat and disappearance. An ice-peak
of the Tyrolese Alps has lowered eighteen
and a half feet in a few years. The Mer de
: Glaze is a hundred feet lower Or thinner than
it was thirty years ago. At ChamnuniX |
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 Glaze and Gla-
cier DIES Blossoms in 1918, 1919 and 1920. He
showed Inc huge boulders which had former
~ been deposited in the valleys near the ter
mini of these glaciers. He pointed out the
situations made on the bounding walls OF the
glacier valleys. From these records | per-
ceivcd that these two great glaciers have re-
coded in fifty years not 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 | traced the footsteps Of the Tecedlng
glacier down the valley of the Arveiron-
down the valley Of the ArFe-down the Arve
all the way to Geneva. Then | felt that |
also had gazed on the ancient glaciers. | had
seen how their ~stupendOus work had been
done. had come upOn the earth in time to
see the continental glaciers Of Europe on
their retreat up the gorges Of the Alps. |
felt the Stone Folk drawn doW III time
toward our own times. | could look over the
abyss of years. and seize its span in my com
prehension. We are the witnesses OF the re-
treat of the glaciers. When the Stone Folk
came to Europe the southern border of the
continental ice field WIS, perhaps, on the
Rhine: now it is in Russia and Siberia and
Greenland. Nor have the vclitable glaciers
become extinct from the United States. In
The deep 2ullies of the Sierra Nevada are
sundry remnants OF a glacier dice continent
wide. On these repositories of anceint lee
has accumulated he - dust Of ages, TO which
the coSmical dust which comes to us out
Of the depths of space has made con-
tributionS not nconsidcrable. But they
lie there. in their Senesccncc, to proclaim
il chapter Of past events III American history
fossil glaciers, as eloquent as a fossil word.
The truth is, w are not SO far cut ut the
dust and smoke Of antiquity rs We had sup
posed. Antiquity is at our doors. The rub
bisl of geological revolution is strewcd about
our feet. We are in the midst Of geological
history. The indian saw Lake Michigan
spread its waters over Illinois. We have
seen cities grow up where our childrcn knew
only a swamp; and our children will see the
swamp lsurp the site Of the lake which nou"-
isles it,. 1t is not Il reinol" epoch which wit
messed the laying down of IL" site OF New
Orleans. The land grows seward three
hundred and thilty-tigll feet annually.
Humphreys and Abbott "siimat" that III"
Whole delta OF the Mississippi had been laid
down in five thousand years. De l.anoye
makes the delta of the Nile hui six thousand
three hundred and fifty years Old. The Sea
OF .tZuV once extended father east than
the Euxine. and the Noiga empticd into it.
The Greeks retained 4 tradition of great
photographic changes about the Black Sea.
The SyMplegadeS. or floating islands. were
only landmarks which changed their posi-
tions relatively to the changing shore line.
There was a time when III" rocky barriers OF
the loracian BoSplorlIS gave way ana III"
Black Sea subsidized. II lHd covered a vast
area " the north ana East !; nov This area
became drained. and was known As the
ancient SeCtoniu-Euw IL" prairie region OF
Russia and tie gralalV of Europe. BergS-
fraser has Shown that DUNN" It's former hi"l
level 1t was continent with the Caspian an,
.Aral Seas; and thus another Mediterranean
stretched eastward beyond the DalNanelles
I'm American r%nginrer has proposed to Re
unite them. Such events lmy" taken place il
:. historic times and before Cur eyes.
According To a French writrrth profession
OF arms is held in low esterm IN China. an,
as i consequence the officer, ;,Sr Ignorant "
H.. miliI.EN ar nMA M snll.n ~ mMIH.LAnD1 Il