Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-01-30
Icebergs and Glaciers.

Icebergs and Glaciers.
In a recent lecture at the Peabody In
situte, Baltimore, on icebergs and glac-
| lers, Mr.. William Bradford said, In con-
nuation of former lecture, that the
Fiord of Sermitsialik is the debouchure
of the great glacier, where it meets the
sea. In the valley that comes down to
the sea at the head of this ford the ice
is in place more than 1000 feet in depth
and from two to four miles wide, occu-
plying the valley completely. This great
ice field is glacier. The glacier is the
parent Of the children of the Arctic frost,
the icebergs The ice sea is the great
reservoir of ice which covers Greenland.
The glacier of the Fiord of Sermitsialik
is one of hundreds of frozen rivers, by
which the precipitations from the atmOs-
phere are discharged into the ocean. The
first fall is snow. The air, which dis
penses heat and cold, life and death, to
the utmost parts of the earth is not neg
lectful of Greenland. The air sucks up
the vapor from the ocean and drops it AS
snOwtiakes upon the sides and submits
of the mountains. The flakes are dry
and harden to ice. The valleys have in
time become leyelled up to the mountain
tops, and there is n waste of Wilderness,
making the great ice sen Of Greenland,
which is called the 'I.hnd Of Des.,la-
ton" The surface snow h dry, deeper
it is hard, and deeper yet, clear iee. The
forms Of magnificent columns, spires and
arches Of blue and green IN the glncisfs
along the coast are the ontcrop Of tbs
powdery snow which has fallen upon the
loftiest mountains far in the interior. The
movement OF the ice from the mountains
to the sea, is one Of the wonders OF ma
ture. This snow has temperature be-
low freezing, and if it always continued
dry the formation of glaciers would be
impossible.
The first action of the sun is to raise
the temperature of the snow and to melt
it. This water percolates through the
colder masses beneath, expelling air. AS
the liquid trickles over the colder sur
faces, it is partially deposited in solid
form and cements the surfaces. Thus
by charging the upper layers with heat
it makes the water a messenger to the
mass beneath, and the clearest ice is
formed, accommodating layer by layer to
an almost incredible extent. This ice
formation is SO peculiar as to have been
a subject of investigation by Agassiz and
Tyndall.
Glaciers move at the rate of five to
eight inches daily. The glacier or ice
stream has its cascades. rapids, and
smooth-Aow like rivers. 1t carries rocks,
fallen from cliffs, as the river carries
sticks of wood. These rocks are de-
posted along the sides of the valley
Or carried ont to sea by icebergs. By
the gradual melting of the ice, this
strange matter is left at the bottom of
old ocean to form a new continent mil
lions of years hence. The fragments
broken from the great glacier wall,which
float and drift to and fro with the ocean
current, are icebergs. It travels south
often SO far as Newfoundland, endanger-
ing vessels crossing the ocean. 1t is
thus that the bo1llders on our western
plains were deposited when the prairies
were the bed of the ocean, One glacier
is sixty miles wide, with rocky cliffs on
either side 1000 feet high. Its front is
on the sea, and it is washed by the waves
like any other coast line. This great |
glacier is at the head of Smiths Sound,
and was discovered by DR.. Kane, who
called it the great Humboldt glacier.
That of Sermitsialik is a spur of the
great mer de gloce which spreads over
Greenland like pail, 1,5OO miles from
Cape Farewell to the farthest discovered
point. Its breadth is utterly unknown.
The New York World says child in