The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-12-05
GLACIERS.
They Wax and Wane, in q Mysterious
Manner, Independent Of the Seasons.

GLACIERS.
They Wax and Wane, In q Mysterious
Manner, Independent OF the Seasons.
We once heard Zermatt bride ex-
press the opinion that glaciers have a
bedeutende Natur of their own; that
they wax and wane in some mysterious
manner, Independent of the seasons. and
past finding out. NJ. j. Nenetz, an en-
gineer of Canton Vaud, was the first to
point out, in work published in Zurich
in 1888, that glaciers are always either
waxing or waning; and his conclusions
have been confirmed by several subse-
quent observers, notably by Prof. Forel.
of Morges, whose Investigations extend
over considerable period. The exact
observation of glacial phenomena, like
science itself, is quite modern; but we
have abundant evidence that for ages
past glaciers have increased and
diminished with periodic regularity. 1t
is on record that toward the end of the
seventeenth century the lower Grindel-
wald glacier invaded pastures and swept
away trees in the beautiful valley be-
tween the Jungfrau and the Faulhorn.
The glaciers of Mount Blanc and Monte
Rosa were also, during the same period,
pushing forward; for several peaks
easily crossed in the fifteenth century
had become impracticable in the eight
eenth. There exists, moreover, map
of the neighborhood of the Grimsel,
drawn in 1740 by doctor of Lucerne,
and when Agassiz, in 1915, compared
this map with the glaciers of the
Aar, he found that they had adj
vanced full kilometer-that is to
say, their lower extremities were that
much farther down the valley. Less than
forty years ago the great Aletsch glacier,
which of late has so wofully waned,
was waxing in pOrtentous fashion. 1t
uprooted trees and threw down houses
which had stood for generations. The
times when glaciers gain ground live
long in the memories of the mountain
GERS of the Alps; for tradition and
history tell of waxing glaciers which
push before them masses Of snow SO
vast as to overwhelm villages, destroy
human lives, and sweep away flocks and
herds. People are still living in Swift
zerland who retain vivid recollection of
the terrible time, some siXty-five years
ago, when the swelling glaciers thrust
before them such heaps of snow and
rubbish that meadows were devastated,
woods cut down, dwellings buried, and
their inmates smothered, and goat
herds starved to death in their huts.
Another like period was that between
1908 and 1911. In Canton Grarus alone
hundreds of acres of forest and meadow
land were wasted by glaciers and ava
lanche. In August, 1885, the sudden
forward movement of glacier de-
stroyed a herd of cattle in the Val di
Tuorz (Graubunden), burying them so
deeply that their bodies were never seen
again. On December q, 1919, the vii
lage of Randa, in the Valais, was de-
stroyed by a Gletcher-lawine GLACIER
avalanche). Almost every building the
village contained was either over
whelmed and crushed or lifted bodily
upward and thrown on one side. Mill
stones went spinning through the air like
cannon balls; balks of timber were shot
into wood mile above the village;
the dead bodies of nine were found hun
dreds of yards from their pastures; and
the church spirs was sent flying into a
distant meadow, like an arrow from
bow. In 1855 began that long retro
grade movement. which seems only now
to be approaching its term. Twenty
five years ago the two great Chamounix
glaciers appeared to be in fair way
fnr oh ha al,,la &b,t
the terminal nioraine; and then they
stopped and have gone back ever since
The shrinkage, though neither stimuli
taneous nor equal, has been general and
remarkable, and produces decided and
not altogether desirable change to the
aspect of many Alpine valleys. The
beautiful little Rosenlaue glacier, which
twenty years ago cleaned among the
dark pine woods and green pastures OF
the Reichenbach valley, has utterly dis
appeared, leaving behind it an insight
ly moraine ofrocky fragments. In 1857
the Rhone glacier reached as far as the
bridge near the Gletch Hotel; now it is
close upon a mile away, and wanes year
by year. The Swiss Alpine Club, among
its other good works, causes to be built
every summer in front of the glacier i
little mound of stones painted black
These mark .he glaciers backward
progress, and show that from 1884 to
1888 it shrank at the rate of from
twenty to seventy meters a year. But
a retrogradc n ovement of the previous
ten years was much greater, and we
may even now be on the eve of a move
ment in advance. Venetz attributed the
alterations which he was the first to
make known, if not to discover, to va
riations in temperature; and albeit the
climate of Europe has not changed in
historic times, and the worlds rainfall
is always the same, here are dry years
and wet years, and it was thought that
after rainy winter glaciers waved, and
that after droughty one they waned.
But, as Prot. FOrel has lately shown,
this theory dDes not accord with facts.
The Grindelwald Pfarr6uch contains a
record of tn. movements of the glacier
for three centuries, and this record
clearly prove that glaciers advance and
retreat over periods which are measured
by decades. A glacier wanes or wakes
continuously for ten, fifteen or often
forty years; for equally long periods it
may remain stationary, but it never
goes forward one year and back the
next. Thu, between 1910 and 1875 the
Grindelwald glacier receded; from 1915
to 1902 it advanced; from 1902 to 1920
it remained stationary; 1903 marked q
maximum Of advance, 1920 a maximum
of retreat; the next twenty-three years
Tas period of growth, the following
forty years of retrogression. From 1916