Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-07-12
Evening IN tho House.
GLACIERS.
Address Before the American Institute
Of Instruction.
The Glacial Scenery OF Europe. vividly
Portrayed.

! NEWPORT, r. l., July IL.
| tn, exrursion to Fort Adams this afte I
4 noon proved enjoyable. u. S. steam launcl
Monroe and steamer Conanicus furnisbe'
| free transportation to members, and a larg
number availed Themselves of the opperru
nifty. They returned at 8 z NJ,
| A large concourse of people gathered il
Music Hall this evening To listen to the lee
iurer, Hon. j, w. Patterson, State superin
dent of schools of New Hampshire. The
title of his address was "A Trip Among the
Glaciers" If we go forth into our fields ant
pastures, he began, we see rocks and bou.d
ers scattered promiscuously and in countless
numbers, which have been transported fron
their original beds by some giant force which
dominated the world in some primitive age
but unknown since the historic period. II
in our northern laiitudes we lay bare the
fanks of the mountains, we find the under
lying ledges all ground and polished by some
powerful machinery of nature, which has
assed down their naked sides
blowing. at intervals, parallel furrows
in their tough and unyielding surface. Every
where over our northern hemisphere the Ii
tanic workers of the 0lden time have dumped
their weighty burdens of drift above the
stratitied deposits of yet earlier period, and
the Heterogeneous masses of mingled dirt
gravel and boulders found among our noun
ains and stretching east and west along our
temperate zune all point to time when gla-
ciers, like those of Greenland, moved over
our continent and sent their mighty bergs
into the sea. But whence came this power
and whittier has it gone? is the question
which naturally comes to every lip. There
are abundant reasons to believe that this gla-
G., ,,Ix. s
the operations of nature.
My personal observation of glaciers was in
1873. One quiet September morning we
left Lucerne, which nestles like a sleeping
child within the shadows of old Mount pila.
tus, and taking a steamer glided down the
lake of the four cantOps to the foot of the
Kigl Culm. Thence we ascended the nlou =
tain by cars, and found ourselves Oh its
grassy summit on one of the loveliest even
ngs of the season. Some 400 persons stood
IN the cool mountain air like so many East
ern fire worshipers waiting for the coming
glories of the new day. At first y narrow
ribbon of gold was seen to thread the sky
above the eastern mountains. Just then,
turning 10 the right, we saw that Jungfrau
had caught wisp of glory and uufurled il
like banner over the valley. 1t dripped
iown like moulton gold till it touched
Monch ard Eigher and crimsoned the Sch
merhorn and the Siberhorn with the roseate
hues Of morning. At last it touched the
sea of mist that slept in the valley and it rose
up like a thing of life into thousands of
strange and beautiful forms. There for the
trst time saw, fifty miles away, Il web of
iazzling snow which had bee woven in the
clouds ard rolled far down the side of the
m uttain into the sunny vall,y below.
The origin of glaciers is understood easily,
but is diff cult TO account salts actoriiy for
some of their phenomena. On the south
side of the Alps we fad the snow lin about
5000 feet above the sea. All moisture above
this lie, it is evident, must be condensed
and reach the mountain surface as crystal
lied or granulated snow or rs hail. When
The steep sules of these lofty heights become
overloaded with snow. il pushes down of its
own weight aid sonnet mes desc. n 8 three
thousand feet below the frost line into the
deep valleys below The depth of the snow
and ice will be measured by the depth of the
valley, and may be from one hundred to fit
teen hundred feet. What has already been
said assumes tnat the glacier is in constant
motion. The evidence of this is the observed
steady movement of obj,cts lying on the
surface of the glacier. But objects near
the centre are seen to advance more rapidly
than those near its sides, which are retarded
by friction with its banks. Hence We in
fer that the movement is not in mass but
molecular.
The next morning we climbed to the Cor
ner Cray by the way of the k ffelberg Here
he spirit of the mountains has done its grand
est work. Standing more than 10 900 feet
above the habitations of the tolers of the sea
you see the Rothorn, the Wisshorn, Monte
Roas, the Matterhorn and other giant forms.
lifting themselves still higher toward heaven.
till their hoary heads are lost in the clouds
The written work speaks of the hidings of
infinite power, but here you stand silent and
awe-struck by the manifestation of divine
strength, which has crumpled and hurled up
the deep crust of the earth as though it were
web of gossamer. The exquisite snow
flakes fall upon your path, and You think only
of innocence and beauty. but there slumbers
in its bosom the strength of God, which in
its wrath, crushes the mightiest works of men
and buries his invincible navies in the depths
of the sea. For man there is no place of
safety but beneath the wings of infinite love