Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1891-01-09
ICE IN GREENLAND.
Tho Country n Narrow Ribbon OF Rugged
Mountains Surrounding nm Ice-sub-
merged Interior.

y
lectured TO large audience Mt the
Brooklyn Institute recently, says the
n. Y. EUening Post, on the Inland Ice
of Greenland.
Mr.. Peary 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
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 600,-
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
vast sea of ice, which ponrs through
breaks in the dam in aresistless groan-
ing torrent, and dcscends to some
ford, or flows through shallow notches
in the crest of the dam, to hang sus-
pended in frozen aerial cataracts.
In approaching part of the coast
from which the island ice is not far
distant, or in proceeding up one of the
fjords, if the day be clear, it will be
noticed that the sky over the mountains
has peculiar silvcry lustrc; 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 protiles, and
Eliminates the clouds above them like
the CLEAN of n winter sunset. This
light is the reflection from the inland
ice, and combines the brllancy and
steadiness of the electric light with the
wierdness of the aurora and CHASTITY,
lifeless glare peculiarly its own.
Seen from the summit of command
ing mountain, the inland ice at mid
night. with the sun just below the
horizon is smooth, clear-cut, and blue.
as a mighty shield of tempered steel,
but grows indistinct and tremulous in
the binding white glare of noon.
Mr.. Peary then described his expert
of 1855, when he. with young Danish
officer from one of the Greenland settle
ments, started from ford ut the head
of Disco bay, and penetrated 100 miles
over the ice. attaining an elevation of
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 n layer of snow
which increased in depth as he adj
vanccd. Once he nearly lost one of his
sledgcs by its breaking through the shin
ice of pond which he was crossing.
1t being the latter part of the arctic
day. which in this latitude is several
weeks long. the sun was constantly
above the horizon, and Mr. PcaIy
marched between p. m. and 8 n. m,
when it was coolest and the glare of
the sun less powerful. Between 6 a.
m. and 6 p. 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 a pit dug in the snow.
! Twice furious snow-storms buried
| him aud his companion in the drift. az
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 n
snow-pit three days. He did not start
to return. however, until clear day
enabled him to get satisfactory obser-
Tations. These placed him little over
100 miles from the edge OF the ice. and
a mile and n half above the ice level.
Mr.. Peary spoke of his surrounding at
this elevation as follows.
I'VE are more than half rs high as
the tallest giants of the Sierre Nevada
and Rocky mountains and tritie 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-blue 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 rays of the SUI
every snow crystal is flashing jewel,
and the sky and snow and air are one
great vibrant chord of color. There
are fairer. softer. warmer places on the
earth, but nowhere else get so close 10
the mighty heart of nature as on this
wind-swept, cloud-wrapped, sun-kissed.
immutable sea.
On the return the two sledges were