The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-07-04
Our 0lio.
GLACIERS.
Phenomena of the Great Fields of
Moving Ice.

Moving Ice.
Thomas Meehan in the Philadelphia Ledger.
The following paragraph is going the
rounds of the newspapers:
Recently, Explorer John w. Kelly
ascended the Pitmegsa river, Alaska, for
distance of % miles, where he found large
glacier emptying into the river. The gla-
cier faces southwark and receives the full
benefit of the sunlight during the short
Polar summer. Gales have deposited on
the glacier PARTICLES of soil and seeds of
plants to depth of from four inches to a
foot. The snowfall of winter soon vanishes
before the June sun. Then vegetation on
the glacier is warmed into life, and in Il
remarkably short time the brown crust OF
soil is covered with robe of green and
with bright flowers, such as buttercups,
dandelions, daffodils and yellow poppies. "
1t has been surprise to the writer to
meet with people of intelligence, many
well-versed in physical and natural science,
who doubt the facts related in that para
graph. 1t shows how little is really known
of the phenomena connected with glaciers,
some Of which it is the purpose of this
paper to explain.
First, as to the floral fact above referred
to, the writer has seen on a mass of sandy
earth, carried along by the great Alaska
glacier known as the Muir glacier, large
mass Of the pretty Arctic plant, Diyas
Octopetala, which, though not in flower,
formed a carpet of as healthy-looking foil
age as if it had been growing on terra
frma instead of a block Of ice, while large
masses of the broad-leaved purple fowered
willow herb, EpiloJium latifoliuna, on
patches of dirt here and there on the gla-
cier, gave quite flower garden appearance
to some portions of the surface.
The first impression is that the surface
of glacier would be as cold as an ice
house, but it is really warmer on the sur
face and in the immediate vicinity of 4
glacier than in other portions of the same
latitude remote from it. In Glacier Bay
in July, though icebergs were floating
down by the hundreds, rendering great
care in navigation necessary, found the
atmospheric temperature ranging between
450 and 650, and though did not have
the chance of observing the thermometer
on the Muir glacier, there was nothing to
suggest any difference in temperature there.
My experience on mountain tops, standing
between the sun and sheets Of perpetual
snow, tends to prove that the temperature
would often rise fully as high as it does
with us on warm summers day. There
is not the slightest difficulty in any Arctic
plant growing and blooming finely on a
glacier, provided there is earth enough to
sustain life.
HOW ICEBERGs ARE FORMED.
The quantity of earth and rock brought
down from the higher land by the Alaskan
glaciers is something prodigiOus. Inpass-
ing through declivities the glaciers surface
receives the material loosened by thaws
after frost, or detached by the mountain
torrents, and is borne down to the edge Of
the ocean, where the great iceberg manu-
factory has its effective plant. These bergs
are made in three distinct ways. The sur
face of the glacier has its lakes and streams
formed by the warmer water from the
thawing snow coursing over it, and hence,
when the face of the glacier is exposed to
the ocean, the upper portion looks as il
surmounted by domes and pinnacles, which
fall off as the face disintegrates. These
form the chief portion of the smaller ice
bergs which are borne down the bays
Another set of bergs is formed by the edges
of the glacier being pushed over into the
ocean, which eventually break off by their
own weight. When the glacier manages
to push itself far out before thus breaking
off its berg, and is of considerable thick
ness, the noise by the cracking off of these
huge portions is something terrific. The
sound, echoed and re-echoed through the
mountains, can only be compared to peals
of the heaviest artillery. Where the gla-
cial stream is rather thin, the rise of the
tide will break off the shelving edge, giving
rise to the third method of berg manufac-
turing.
1t is no matter whether the tides in the
icebergs be ebbing or flowing, the iceberg:
are always seen rapidly coursing downwards
towards the ocean and then towards the
equator. With the field-glass, rocks earth
and other material may often be seen tax
ing free ride down to some unknown re-
gion, dependent on where the berg finally
melts away.
At the present time the icebergs seen in
the bays of Alaska are not large enough ia
carry down enormous masses of rock, but
in the past they must have been of the i'm
mense size of those seen ON the Atlantic
Along the shore line of Bartlett Bay the
writer saw block of granite, of which he
took the exact dimensions at the time, but
with the exact figures not to hand, he may
give in a rough way at eight feet, or say
500 cubic feet-a block which could pro
badly not be drawn by the strongest vehi-
Gle made to draw such heavy blocks through
a Philadelphia Stretching across pros
trate tree trunk, and could only have been
placed in such position by dropping from
a thawing iceberg. When it is remem-
bered how little difference there is between
the weight of water and ice. and that pos
sibly four-iths of an iceberg is under the
water, we can imagine how large must have
been the iceberg that carried and dropped
this huge block Of granite on that shore.
THE TEMPERATURE NEAR GLACIERS.
We'may now take up the main points OF
this article-why should it be warmer in
the immediate vicinity of the glaciers than
at points further distant Why should
the icebergs be always floating down 70.
wards the wide ocean, irrespective of wind
and tide?