The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1880-12-11
THE SWISS GLACIERS.

There are more than four hundred
"stream glaciers" in Switzerland ant
the adjoining Tyrol, which have made
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, a great
steamship, the ARIZONA" ran into an
iceberg and broke away portion of
her bow. Indeed, in many cases, ves-
sells have been utterly wrecked by Ice
bergs. These floating mountains of ice
are often of enormous size. Some of
them have been grounded in Baffin's
Bay, whore the water is l 800 feet deep.
Another, seen by French explorer in
the South Sea, presented 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
1872 the steamer Acadia passed one
in the Atlantic ocean that was 400 to
500 feet above water, and therefore, on
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 l8, 900
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 drv 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-fioe. 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 a kind of pudding-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 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 glacier APP
pear, like the embankments of a canal
pr river, as If built to prevent the glacier
rom spreading. In the lower portion
u Switzerland, called the Jura, are to [
De found blocks of stone, some of them .
IS large as cottages, transported there
~ glaciers from distance of fifty miles. :
he rocks, broken material and dust are !
% thicSly spread over the tops of most
ce-rivers that their true character is =
concealed, and at a little distance. or ,
ven IN walking over them, not strip :
i ice can be seen for some distance. :
The surface of others, however, are clear !
Ike the Rhone glacier, and dazzling to :
he eyes IN strong sunlight. :
Strange sights appear in plenty as !
ou wander over one of these huge ice !.
lvers. Large slabs of stone, supported {
n legs OF ice, are frequently to be met .
nth, the leg OF ice having been saved
rom melting by the stone. These 1
locks OF ice make very convenient Ia
les, too, on which to spread ont a
lnch.) Whenever glaciers course n
lkes it over precipice or sharp de- '
line. the surface is split up into innu- n
lerable huge ice-needles and ice-pyra-
lids, some standing at an angle. ap- C
caring just ready to topple over and .
'ush any one rash enough to approach q
lem. Occasionally, at sharp decline, A
'e ice river will break in two, the for.
ard part shooting ahead and the rear m
'rtion gradually, or as quickly, closing al
the gap. A hamlet in the st. Mich. Is
as valley has been, on several occa- 4,
'ns, partially destroyed by the falling II
the Bis glacier. At one time 500. 9.
1000 of cubic feet of ice fell in an in II
mt toward the hamlet, the agitation ar
the air causing houses to be twisted he
,und and their roofs torn off, while IN
my others were crushed like almond of
Ills. In speaking of scene like this. of
eyewitness says: 1t made its pres mr.
o known by frightful noise; every be
1g around us appeared to move of no