The Russellville Democrat., 1888-10-04
ALASKAN GLACIERS.

the knowledge Of it until he has served
for three years. - Chicago Ne,0s.
ALASKAN GLACIERS.
One Of the CIeries Of Our Arctic Northwest
Territory.
Not the least interesting feature o.
an Alaskan trip is the sight OF numerous
glaciers threading the mountain glens,
and filling with icy mass, from two
hundred to a thousand feet in thick
ness. the valleys and broad basins.
On their surface they are heayed into
hiilocks, split into pinaeles, and rent
by yawning crevasses, and 90 cracking,
and crunching, and growing down
their easy slopes, and when, with bold
and gllstening front, they he. rsscbed
the channels. E.age masses ciaate ffoi6
the ,.urent glaeiet ana float away ne
tceRerss, so numerous that the steamer
Is often obliged to change its course to
| avoid a collision.
The color Of these wandering masses
varies from dead white to ultramarine
and sapphire, and they, too, are ofte,
sGrseunted with turrets and castellat-
ed forms, shapelv and sfapeless,
The most notable I'll the glaciers in
Sontbeestern Alaska is the Muir, named
from Prot John Muir, a geolegist of
some reputation, since he gave the first
uncolere@ description OF it. 1t is forty
miles long. and back on the land basin
OF the mountains, being reinforced by
fifteen tributaries coming down the
glens from different points of the COM
pass, it swells to an icy sea twenty-five
miles in diameter
Thence II moves with irresistible
power bearing rocks and long lines Of
detiftus on its surface-a surface
heaved into rounded hills, and beetling
pfceipices. splintered into columns,
spires and crystal turrets. and rent
with chasms at the bottom OF which
running streams appear often broken
by water falls that plunge deeper down
into the dark abysses, just before it
reaches the bay, it is compressed
by two sentinel mountains, in q
gorge one mile In width. Elnerg-
ing from the narrow gateway. with a
bold front, buttressing the bay with a
perpendicular wall from two to three
hundred feet high, ii reaches the place
where its underlying support ceases,
and then begins the battle between CO.
hesion aHd gravity The latter force
always prevails, for at the edge OF its
supports vast masses break from the
glacial torrent with boeln like the
discharge of park Of artillery, and
tumble into the bay with dash and a
shock that agitate the waters miles
away, making navigation perilous to
craft of all sizes.
The almost deafening roar made
when these masses are rent away, the
splashing baptism they receive in their
fall, and the leaping waters, art lively
witnesses to the birth of an iceberg
which henceforth, as an independent
existence, goes on its mission Of
grinding the shores, putting against
its fellows, ana soaring navigators.
From observations made upon its
surface, the motion is quite swift for q
glacier, being about sixty-fve feet daily.
Considering what force IN wear
ing down the mountains an Icy torrent
must be one mile wide, three hundred
feet thick, and flowing with such We
locity--it goes grinding, and crunch
ing and grrahing and cracking with
explosions, and mingled in loud wall
like that from the litans imprisoned
under Mt. Etna.
Now let any one in fancy frame for
himself this picture: Snow-capped
mountains, tive Of them, Fair@eather
and GrillOn, more than fifteen thou
sand feet high, thick set with glitter
ing peaks and clear cut as silhouettes
on dark sky; the great glacier, child
Of Attic SHOWS, turreted and pin
nacled, and sphntered into thou
sand strange forms, upon which Iris
has flung the varied hues OF
ameythyst, and turquoise, aud sap
phire; huge masses riveu from the
crystal river with q laundering roar,
reeling and topping into an amber sea,
thickly dotted with newborn and va
grant icebergs; and all this scene glori-
fed and TRANSPORTED by the setting
sun-looking upon this picture through
the creative power OF imagination, one
can readily conceive that the enrap-
tured tourist, standing in the presence
Of the realities, would call that day
spent with the Muir glacier the day OF
all the days he ever passed gazing
upon and listening to the Wild wonders
OF our plauet.--Cor BuBaiO ComDler-
c1ak.