The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-07-04

or warm water aScendS, because IL Is HShter
than cold, is not strictly correct 1t Is
rather that cold air or water is the heav-
lest, and under the power of gravitatlon
pushes that which is the lighter out of the
way.
There would be little circulation OF air |
in the atmosphere or water in the ocean,
but for the heavy volume of cold air and |
water at the arctic pressing down on the
volume as the tropics, made lighter and
warmer by the suns rays, and which 1t
forces upwards out of the way. But the
very pressure of cold air and water towards
the tropics makes vacuum which Is ln-
stantly filled by the warmer upper stratum,
which eventually becomes heavy and cold,
and again the lower descending current to-
wards the tropics in turn. Somewhere
there must be continuous flow OF cold
water and cold air from the poles to the
equator, and somewhere there must be over
this same course flow of rarified, lighter
airs towards the poles, to take the place OF
the colder and denser volumes rolling away.
Thus we have the cold water from the
melting ice of the Muir Glacier bay rolling
continually down beneath the warmer sur
face water, and, as four-ffths Of the iceberg
is beneath the surface of the water, the
influence which carried it down Glacier
bay in spite Of wind and ebb tide can be
readily understood.
In like manner we may understand why
il is warmer near the glacier than some
distance away. The cold, heavy air rolls
down along its surface, and the lighter and
warmer air slides in to fill the vacuum. The
surroundings of the cold mass must there
fore be lighter and warmer than elsewhere,
as only from its lightness could it be drawn
into the space which the colder had vacat-
ed. 1t may be said that glacier, by vir-
tue of this law, carries with it, as indeed
does almost all in nature, the elements of
its own destruction BY virtue of these
laws. glaciers are in some ATTITUDES advanc-
ing, at others receding. Recession at pres
ent seems the order ON the Alaskan coast.
DEAD TIMBER AREAS.
Carrying this explanation with us much
of the interesting phenomena connected
with the flora of Alaska and the glaciers
can be understood. One sees everywhere
large areas of dead forest, just as in south
ern forest fires. But there are no fires in
Alaska to destroy the forests. They have
been destroyed by the extra severity of the
winter climate These areas of dead tim
Der are interlined among thrifty, luxuriant
masses of healthy timber. The writer has
never found any one able to offer any Opin
ion for this strange occurrence. But We
find that the healthiest and best timber is
near the glaciers, or in the wake Of the
glaciers, which, by melting faster than they
flow, are called retreating glaciers. 1t was
evident to the writer that these glaciers
receded the current Of bitter cold air were
diverted, according to the riffs in the
mountain chains reached by the retroces
sion, and there were changes Of climate
therefore, every few generations, as these
new openings were reached.
These deductions, fortified as they art
by actual experience among the glacier
and icebergs of Alaska, ought to strengthen
the views of those who believe there mus
be an open sea or land not iceclad at th'
poles. The rolling under the law of grav.
itation of the heavy atmospheric column
southwardly can only be filled by lighter
and warmer upper volume, which must b.
drawn into the vacuum, and the conveyin:
of these upper thermal currents into some
thing of focus must increase the tempera
ture at that point We should, therefore
look for no ice III the centre of this con
centration, thinner ice us it followed thu
wake of the receding cold column, ant
thicker ice at the verge of the ice belt
And this accords with the experience Of
arctic navigators that the thickest ice is a
the outer verge of the ice zone.
SEEDS UNDER ICE.
Another interesting feature of the for
of the glaciers was developed by the writer
experience in Alaska The whole of the
peninsula adjacent to Bartlett Bay was Ger
tainly all covered by the ice when Kotzbu,
at the beginning of our century explored
its shores. This statement of Kotzbue'
was confirmed by remarkably intelligent
white man, known there as Dick Wilough
by, who, by one of those strange freaks tina
sometimes takes possession of man or wo
man, had many years back cast his lot anC
life among the Alaska Indians. He as
aured ME that he had many years in the
past crossed with Indians on the ice, SOM
forty miles, from Bartlett Bay to PyramiC
Harbor. The whole of this peninsula i
now a young forest of hemlock, spruce fir
arbor vitae and dwarf pine, in no place
more than 25 feet high, and receding ii
height and, of course, age as the ice belt i
neared. The young trees spring up a
once as the ice melts away. The usua
explanation is that the wind gathers til,
seeds from the seeding forests in the dis
tance, and dropped the seed over these ice
thawed regions where the forests ar
formed. 1t seemed next to impossible tina
these seeds, some of them comparativel,
heavy, could have been brought here il
such quantity, and spread over the penin
sula so regularly, in the short time sine
the land had been free from ice; and
the granite block on the huge PROSTATE tire
trunk, showing the land was wooded be
fore the ice flow overlook it, suggested tina
the seed had been for centuries under tn
ice.
My botanical collections subsequently
made in the bay seemed to confirm thi
thought. The number of species was re
markably large, and were so abundant
distributed that they could not, | believe
have been introduced to the peninsula sine
the ice disappeared They were all peren
mails. and seemingly must have been pre-
served alive, but, in state of suspendet
animation, so to speak, under the ice cap
for centuries.
NATURAL ICE HOUSE.
The remark of Explorer Kelley, tha
earth to the depth Of from four inches +