The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1890-07-17
ICE IN GREENLAND.
The Country Narrow Ribbon of Rugged
Mountains Surrounding an Ice-Sub-
merged Interior.

Civil-Engineer Peary. Z. S. n,
lectured TO a large audience at the
| Brooklyn Institute recently, says the
| n. Y. EUeniig Post, on the Inland Ice
| of Greenland"
Mr. Pearv spoke of Greenland as a
| land of startling contrasts; land of
midnight sun and MONDAY night; of
tropical skies and eternal ice. The
length from north to south he said, is
1 greater than the extreme width of the
/ United States from the mouth of the
| Rio Grande TO the forty-ninth parallel
and its about the same as that of
| Mexico, or four times the combined
area of the New England and the
/ Middle States.
| Four-tifths of this area. or about Co.,
| 900 square miles. equal to twelve times
| the area of New York state, is sub
merged by the inland ice, which is in
| places undoubtedly mile in depth.
| Greenland is but narrow ribbon of
ragged rocky mountains, surrounding
an ice-submerged interior; titanic
mountain dam, in fact holding in check
IA vast sea of ice, which pours through
breaks in the dam in aresistless groan-
ing torr.nt, and descends to some
! ford. or flows through shallow notches
| in the crest of the dam, to hang sus-
| pended in frozen aerial cataracts.
In approaching a part of the coast
| from which the island ice is not far
distant, or in proceeding up one of the
fiords, if the day be clear, it will be
noticed that the sky over the mountains
has a peculiar silvery lustre; if the day
| be cloudy, the mountains are seen
| standing in silhouette against pale,
supernatural light which rises over
| every sullen peak, streams through
! every gap in their ragged profiles, and
| Eliminates the clouds above them like
| the CLEAN of a winter sunset. This
| light is the reflection from the inland
| ice. and combines the brilliancy and
| steadiness of the electric light with the
| wierdness of the aurora and a CHASTITY,
! lifcless glare peculiarly its own.
! Seen from the summit of a command
| ing mountain. the inland ice at mid
| night, with the sun just below the
| horizon. is smooth. clear-cut, and blue,
as mighty shield of tempered steel,
| but grows indistinct and tremulouS in
| the binding white glare of noon.
Mr.. Peary then described his expert
! ences on the inland ice in the summer
of 1852 when he, with young Danish
| officer from one of the Greenland settle
ments, started from ford at the head
of Disco bay, and penetrated 100 miles
over the ice, attaining an elevation of
| Z, 800 feet above the sea. After lifting
and carrying his sledges, on which
were packed his provisions and sleep
ing-gear nearly 1000 feet up the
ragged and precipitous face of the ice,
he commenced his journey the first
week in July.
| After traversing some time miles of
rough ice, cut by numerous crevasses,
in crossing which he and his companion
| had several narrow escapes, he found
the ice covered with layer of snow
| which increased in depth as he adj
vanced. Once he nearly lost one of his
sledges by its breaking through the thin
ice of pond which he was crossing.
1t being the latter part of the arctic
| dav, which in this latitude is several
weeks long, the sun was constantly
| above the horizon, and Mr. Peary
marched between & p. IN. and a. H.,
when it was coolest and the glare of
the sun less powerful. Between 6 a.
| m. and y. M. when it was warmest
and the binding reflection from the
snow was insupportable, he slept. some
times stretched on his sledge and some
times in Il pit dug in the snow.
| Twice furious snow-storms buried
him and his companion in the drift, as
they lay on the snow with the sledges
turned on their sides to shelter them
| from the wind.
The last of these storms continued
five days, and after two-days' struggle
against it, stopped Mr.. Peary's further
advance and kept him confined in a
snow-pit three days. He did not start
/ to return, however, until clear day
enabled him to get satisfactory obser-
vations. These placed him a little over
| 100 miles from the edge of the ice, and
mile and half above the ice level.
| Mr.. Peary spoke of his surrounding at
| this elevation as follows.
I'VE are more than half as high as
the tallest giants of the Sierre Nevada
and Rocky mountains and a tribe less
than half as high as Mont Blanc
The snow and ice beneath our feet
| would cover Mount Marcy one-half
mile, and Mount Washington one
| fourth mile, and Mount Mitchell, the
| highest peak east of the Mississippi
| 800 feet deep. 1t is evening; the
| great, yellow sun is sinking to the
northern horizon; the binding midday
| glare is gone, and we can dispense with
| our blue goggles. Beneath our feet the
snow, fine and dry as graduated sugar,
is over six feet deep and expands from
us to the steel-bue horizon, an infinite
| marble slab. From east to west and
| round TO east again, from zenith to
| nadir, this horizon and the sun are alb
solutely the only things the eye can fix
upon. In the slant ravs of the sun
every snow crystal is a flashing jewel,
and the sky and snow and air are one
| great vibrant chord of color. There
are fairer, softer, warmer places on tlR
earth, but nowhere else get so close to
the mighty heart of nature as on this
wind-swept, cloud-wrapped, sun kissed.
immutable sea.
On the return the two sledges were
dashed together Ia catamaran, rugged
with mast, ward, and sail from alpen.
| Sums stLu 1T iHHiuioul Oh the IHlru
| night, having descended to an eleya.
ton of 5000 feet, where the snow was
covered with a light crust and the wind
very fresh, Mr.. Peary and his CON-
panion stretched themselves upon the
s!3dge and began bit of travelling
which, as far as he knows, has no
parallel in arctic work. From mid.
night till 5 in the morning he sailed his
impromptu ice-boat down the lev slope
at speed varying from walk to .
run. AT 8 O'Clock the black mountains
of the land came into view, and the
next hour he dropped 600 feet with a
rush like toboggan. After narrow
escape of being driven into one of the
blue lakes on the ice he got off and
walked till the snow became a deer
semi-liquid slush, and then turned in
on his sledge. The next two nights he
marched through slush and water.