Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-08-01
Ward Steele in The Pausy
GLACIERS AND IcEBERGs.


Ward Steele i'll The Pansy.
GLACIERS AND ICEBERGs.
Glaciers are rivers of ice; not streams of
water frozen over, but solid from top to
bottom. A load of ice and snow, sliding
off from a roof on warm day, is, on a
small scale, exactly what glacier is on
large one. On the tops of high mountains
it is never warm enough to melt the snow,
but i'll the summer it sottens, and begins TO
slide down the steep slope on which
it lies In the daytime it thaws
little, and at night freezes again,
| until, by and by, it comes to be ice. Then
it is called glacier. There are 400 such
streams in the Alps alone. In Iceland they
are so numerous that the island is named
for them. In one portion of it there are
more than 5000 miles of mountain covered
with ice and snow. Their thickness ranges
from 100 to 600 feet Sometimes they move
as fast as four feet in a day; at Others not
more than fourteen in a year.
OF course, so slow a motion cannot be
seen by the eye, but that it really exists has
been proved in many curious ways. For
instance, traveller fastens a stake in the
ice, notices that it is opposite a certain
rock, and goes away. Coming back year
or two afterward, he finds that it is several
feet lower down on the mountain AS it
was firmly planted in the ice, the glacier
must have moved that distance.
Slow as their progress is, glaciers act
with enormous power, on account of their
great weight. 4 small lump of ice makes
a pound and here are often masses mile
or two wide several hundred feet thick,
and ten, fifteen or even twenty miles long
Everything that obstructs their path is
torn up. and they soon become loaded with
Z; 4 IN ait har side nil los pf
rubbish, forced up by their pressure. These
are lateral morains, or side walls. AT the
lower end there is often a similar pile,
which is known as terminal morain or
end wall.
The surface of glaciers is broken up into
all sorts of odd shapes-in appearance not
unlike water roughened by a storm. Large
assures, or cracks, are COMMON, and make
walking dangerous. Persons who venture
far, without being familiar with the ice, are
apt to find themselves in a network of
seams, that cross each other in different
directions, like fences. Some of these
cracks are many feet wide, and as deep as
the eye can see. very likely extend
ing to the bottom of the glacier. Some
times they are crossed by narrow bridges
of snow, that must be carefully pressed
upon and packed with the foot to enable
them to bear the weight of man. Parties
going to any great distance upon the ice
provide themselves with ladders, ropes,
graphing irons, and like apparatus, to help
them across these cavities.
The Alps, in Switzerland, are among the
greatest wonders of the world. Every
traveller in Europe feels that he must make
at least one visit to them. Now and then
hardy man attempts the ascent of one of
the mountains. A few have been up Mont
Blanc, the highest of ala three DAYS
Journey of such terrible exposure that
it often happens that persons lose
limbs from the cold. Recently a party of
eleven, who made the ascent, We're over
taken by a snow-storm when returning
down the mountain, were lost, and all per-
ished. Three only of their bodies hay e as
yet been recovered.
Often a glacier comes in its course to a
precipice, over the edge of which it presses,
and falling, in huge masses. brushes all be-
meath. Whole villages have been de-
stroyed by these avalanches. The mass is
sometimes sufficient to choke up the mar
row gorge into which it falls, thus shutting
in the water formed by the melting of the
lower end of the glacier. If the barrier is
strong enough to bear the pressure upon it.
the landscape is enriched by lake, which
often finds an outlet in beautiful cascade
More frequently, however, the dam gives
way, and the torrent rushes down upon
the cultivated land, sweeping everything
before it. A remarkable instance of this
kind occurred in the Val de Bagnes about
fifty years ago. The river Dranse became
entirely stopped by avalanches where it
passed through narrow gorge near the
upper end of the valley. 1t sooH became
evident that the flood must burst the icy
barrier, and desolate the entire valley
which was in many places thickly settled.
A bold engineer proposed to cut tunnel
and let the water Oft gradually. The
workmen were busy at it for more than 4
month. in constant danger of their lives
| from falling ice or stones The gallery,
| when finished, was sixty-eight feet long.
At first the plan succeeded well. In three
| DAYS the lake, which contained eight hun
! bred cubic feet of water, was
reduced third. Then it was discov-
cred that the water was mining
| the wall. 1t fell with fearful crash. In
| half an hour the lake was empty The
| flood rushed down, acquiring new force as
| it burst from one narrow gorge to another
| and carrying with it forests, rocks, houses,
| barns and cultivated lands. For the first
| four miles it swept along at the rate of
| twenty miles an hour, or as fast as an ordi-
nary train of rail cars. In six hours and
| half it reached Lake Geneva, distance of
| forty-five miles Whole villages were de-
! stroyed The Ell tire lower end of the val
! ley was covered with layer of new soil.
| brought by the torrent. In parts it was so
| deep that it was necessary TO cut roads
| through it. In places every landmark was
eflaced.
Where glaciers shall end is pretty evenly
! decided by the warmth Of the air. They
| cannot long exist where the ice is melting.
There have been cases, however, where they
| have pushed themselves into cultivated
| fields. Men have picked and eaten ripe
| cherries with one foot upon the ice and the
other upon the tree. The glacier of Brenva,
| having reached the foot of the mountain,
and being still crowded on by the weight of
snow above, not only crossed the valley,
but plowed its way for considerable
distance up the opposite slope. Green
! fields peeped from beneath it on either
side. The remains of walls and fences
showed where large villages were buried.
! The valley was divided by wall of ice
In Greenland, and other very cold coun-
| tries, the glaciers often descend to the
waters edge, and discharge themselves
upon the ocean in immense foes, or bergs.
| 1t IS not uncommon for vessel to fasten
to one of these great fields of ice, and the
crew to travel for DAYS along its surface.
without discovering but what they are
upon the mainland. Sometimes their size
| is equal to q hundred square miles. They
are raised above the water from two to
! eight feet. These bodies of ice are the
cause of much danger to shipping; for
| vessel caught between two of them Is
almost certain to be crushed The stoutest
ribs cannot stand their pressure.
| Ice fields and foes are often saltwater
| formations, unconnected with glaciers,
| but icebergs are always fresh They are
| comparatively small, but rise two or three
/ hundred feet above the water, in very diff
! ferent and queer figures. Every foot above
water shows that there are eight beneath,
so they must sometimes be more than two
thousand feet thick. They are loaded with
rocks and other substances, which, as the