Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1889-04-11
THE GREAT GLACIER.
A Sight Which Could Not be Matched
in Grandeur.

so we stood steadfastly gazing at the
vast vision, enraptured, when an exclama-
tion from a man behind us faced us around,
and there to the north and east we saw a
sight which may not perhaps be
matched in it's grandeur and surround
ings on this earth of ours-a glacier, vast,
lofty, immense, buttressed, fssured, crew
iced; section of the Mississippi tilted up
obliquely and frozen solid the St. Law
renee pouring bodily over a mountain
range 10000 feet above you and turned
on the instant into ice, stiffened
solid at its maddest plunge; a crea-
tion of 10000 years; a monument
above those past, dead years, which all
the rain and shine of other equal years to
come will not efface; standing cold, mon
strous, motionless, silent, sublime within
a distance 80 short from our parlor car that
even the weakest woman or smallest child
in it might by an easy stroll stand under
its ponderous front. Heavens! how small,
how feeble, how insignificant seemed the
engine of our heavy train, with its sobs and
paintings and puny puffs of power beside
that monstrous creation of ages, that land
scape of frozen force, that overhanging
world of chained energy, which, should ma
ture ever loosen the chilled links which
chained it to that mountain pass, would
sweep our engine, train and yonder house
away like chips; aye, crush, grind and pull
verize them all to finest dust-so fine that
were it dry the winds might lift it as they
lift ashes and blow it through the air, in
visible to mortal eye.
Never shall it be said,' exclaimed the
Judge, that l came to such an environ
ment of majesty as this and passed heed
lessly or. Here we will stop day and
night and see the sunset splendor and the
sunrise glory on these peaks and the
moonlight whiten the surface of that frozen
field. There is not ice enough in Switzer-
land to make that single glaoler yonder
Let the train move ON. We four have
wandered on the earth too widely and seen
too many of is wonders not to recognize
the extraordinary and do homage to it,
"And so the train rolled down the grade,
around the swell of the mountain beyond,
and left US four gray headed boys standing
above the glacial torrent, gazing and won
dering.
THAT afternoon we took the train-an
easy relay-which led us to the glaciers
front Slowly we drew our line of progress
toward it, The fit mood was on us all.
We were alone, we four. We were intel
ligent enough to appreciate the awful
phenomenon. We "a " it with the eyes of
many years. We could measure it BY
European comparison. We could weigh it
in the scales of worldwide knowledge.
Two Of us had footed the Alpine passes.
One had seen the Himalayas. Another
had wintered within the Arctic circle.
SLOWLY we moved onward. A few rods
of motion onward and we would pause.
We were all eyes, all feeling We telt we
were approaching a fragment of eternity.
We were drawing nigh to and gazing at a
bit of the everlasting. Before US was the
work of ages Here the centuries had
stopped. Between these monstrous noun
tains Time had come to full halt, power
less to 60 out one foot further. Here be-
fore us, with folded wings, white faced,
hoary- headed, his scythe held in his stiff
fened hands, he saw him stand, a statue of
ice.
colder than Rome, older than Egypt,
older than man, murmured the Judge
solemnly as he gazed.
In the front of the glacier was great
round wall of sand, of cobbles or bOwlders.
Its pressure drove downward to the bed
rock of the world and plowed the surface
earth.
This plow plows slowly, but it plows
deep remarked Colonel Coffee as he ran
his eye along the huge ridge.
Think who steadies it, said the
Judge.
THE sun sank from sight behind the
western ridge. The gray shaft of Sir DON
aid flushed, Redeemed, then blazed as with
fire.
From amid the dark fire above us night
softly shook her raven plumage and feath-
cred US with gloom. Then she shook her
sable wings. She scared upward and the
world darkened. Anon she sailed, vast
formation of blackness, above the peaks.
The skies saw her coming and welcom, d
her with every window lighted. The In
dian myth was realized. The raven brood
ed the world.
"But the great glacier amid the gloom
still shimmered whitley. From between
the pillars of darkness, from the caverpous
blackness of night, it look ed forth like the
face of a dead man from the mouth of the
grave.
Thus we four sat in the darkness
watching and pondering, while through the
gloom and stiffness the glacial torrent at
our feet tore its line of hoarse noise.
'See,' exclaimed, the glacier is grow
ing whittier! Its paleness begins to brighten.
Look! There is CLEAN in that upper crew
ICE! and see-see that flash O. whitep
1.-The moon! the moonp cried the Judge.
The moon is rising. Now we shall see the
spectacle of lifetime
Excuse me, reader / cannot write it
down! l know the limitation of letters.
Even could tint them with all the colors
of the palette it were in vain. Imagine
our position, standing in that gorge,
deep, deep down, at the very roots of these
monstrous mountains, within the inclosure
of their awful environment; the still.
ness. which the roar of the the torrent
divided but did not disturb the whole
world black with the blackness of night
when it smothers the woods out of sight
of the eye; the great glacier in front of us,
vast, monstrous, formless, as it lay dimly
outlined in tie gloom; then imagine it
growing, growing, growing upon the sight.
See it brighten and widen out into view.
"See the CLEANS begin to run over it.
See that flash of white fire strike the crest
and run crinkliDg along the lofty ridge un-
til it connects the two opposite peaks with
line of living fire."