The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1886-11-08
AN ALASKA FOREST.
Enormous Trees Surrounded by Vast
Fields of Ics.


Fields of Ics.
Wandering around near the camp l
was struck with establishment at the
great size of she trees of the forest in
to which we had crept Within twenty
feet of our cump-fre were two trees,
one of which measured twelve feet sew
en- inches and the other seventeen feet
in circumference at the height of
persons arm from the ground The
latter had its thick shaggy bark stripped
off nearly to the ground, being dead
tree and thus losing much in its meas
urement. About thirty yards from
camp was tree that gave twenty-one
feet in circumference at about six feet
from the ground. The most astonish-
ing part was that such forest should
be found actually surrounded by ice
ten or twelve miles across in every di-
rection. OF conrse il is reasonable to
suppose that trees were here before the
ice, and that this forest probably once
connected with the forests of the great
fiat lands. Here was undoubted evil
dence that this small forest was being
obliterated rapidly by the advancing
front of the Guyot glacier, the foot-ice
grinding the huge trees into pulp and
splinters as surely as quartz-crusher
grinds the rock into powder. Trees
five and six feet through were bent over
and splntered as if they were brush
while some of the fallen trunks were
split longitudinally into perfect kind
ling wood. 1t was the mills of the gods
grinding slowly, etc. Nor were they
grinding so very slowly, either as one
could see by comparing them with 9TH
err glacial action near by. But little
way of, probably half-mile to mile
away was a small clump of woods,
into which the glacier in the
past had protruded, as shown 10y
the fallen shattered trunks that lay
near the edge of small morainc, from
which the glacier had now retrcated
great number of rods. Out from the
bristling line of shattered tree trunks
piled over each other for nearly or
fully hundred yards all the spruce
trees were dead but still standing,
their whitened trunks and long, gaunt
limbs contrasting strangely and con-
spicuously with the trees still covered
with foliage that formed their back
ground These dead evergreens had
been actually killed by the proximity
to the ice without its touching them,
and either by its chilling influence,
kept up throughout the year for pro-
badly centuries, or the constant appli.
cation of the ice-water about their
roots preventing their growth for along
this foot-ice there was always marshy
stream of ice-water draining off to the
nearest muddy creek or rill. This was
true of the glacier foot not over fifty
yards from our camp in the forest, for
here we got our water for cooking
purposes, but mere, also, the ice of the
glacier had evidently come forward so
fast that the trees were rather killed
by direct crushing of their trunks and
limbs than by the slower one of the in
tluence Of great masses of ice near by,
and it was possible to sit down on this
foot-ice of the Guyot glacier, probably
ten to twenty feet the at that point,
and at the same time be under the
shade of huge evergreen tree. il a
person desired two such cooling in
fluences at the same time. Thus
came to the conclusion that the front
of this great glacier was like the
fingers Of some huge radiating animal
prolonging themselves outward and re-
tracing again at long intervals, that
would require many human lives one
after the other to measure a single
stride and its backward flow Fred
erick ,Schscatka in New Iork Times