The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-10-28
HYSINGER g. ROSENTHAL. Humboldt.

tried from this point to count the
icebergs in sight, but it was too much
like counting the stars and 1 gave it
up after getting somewhere in the
hundreds. All of this In the dog days,
when people i'm the States were wor-
rying themselves into premature old
age trying to keep cool.
In such out of the way places as this
one Is generally struck with the total
absence of sound and awed by the un-
broken stiffness that pervades the
whole region. 1 well remember that
nearly two years ago, when our little
party surmounted the crest of the
Panamint range and looked for the
first time into the depths of Death
Valley, what created the most lasting
impression was not the shining white
bottom thousand feet below, nor the
dim gray haze, nor the red peaks of
the Funeral range, but the deathlike
silence that made one almost afraid
to speak. But here the case was as
different rs could be imagined, and
avalsnches in the mountains, the
grinding of icebergs as they came into
collision, or as a new one was formed
by separating from glacier front, the
widening of crevasses, together with
the everlasting screeches of gulls and
OF her Sea fowl, kept up a pandemoni-
UNI of noise which for the first night
of our stay made sleep impossible. Of
ten q field of snow and ice a mile
across and probably a hundred feet
thick would break loose from its perch
up on the mountain and come tearing
down to the valley thousands of feet
below, sweeping away everything in
its course. If it were in a distant part
of the range, thirty miles or So distant,
we would hear only q series of low
rumbles lasting but few moments
but if, on the other hand, it were with
in two or three miles, the roaring was
terrific, and seemed to shake the earth,
while the echoes thrown back from |
different parts of the range continued
for several minutes after the ava
lanche had reached the bottom. The
roar of one big slide would hardly
have died away before things would
break loose somewhere else; and SO
the show went merrily on, day and
night, during our two weeks stay.
My closest acquaintance with an
avalanche was at the distance of about
two miles. White and 1 had gone in
q canoe to a rocky island in the mid
die OF the bay to shoot ptarmigan, and
were just preparing to return to camp
when 1 CHANGED to look toward Mt.
Seattle and saw that something was
wrong. Up on spur of the mountain
which rose about 5000 feet above the
waters of the bay clouds of loose snow
were being whisked about by the
wind, and we could see that there
was downward movement of q large
section of the snow field. The progress
was at first apparently slow, but it
soon gathered Roadway as it advanc- !
'd, and then, widening like q partial &
y opened fan, swept with terrific
speed down to the bay q mile and a 1
half in vertical height below. The G
path cut by the slide was about four I
lundred yards wide at the top, but by |
he time it reached the bottom had i
spread out to mile. The sight, as G
hat mass Of confess thousands of 7
ons OF ice, snow and rock struck the +
luiet waters of the bay, beggars de- ,
IcriptiOn. In the water where the f
avalanche struck were a large number g
II icebergs, most of them small, how C
'ver, and, rather than risk suspicion c
Il drawing the long bow, 1 will not f
ay how high, In my opinion, some of U
hese, and the surrounding water, Z
we're thrown by the force of the i'm a
'sct, but will leave that to be guess O
d. Shortly after the slide started we q
Ieard the first rumblings, but by the f
ime 1t reached the bottom the roar v
vas almost deafening. 1 afterward
earned from the officers OF the GLASS
or" that it was heard distinctly on f,
'oard the ship thirty-five miles dis d
ant. or course, tremendous agita- a
ion Of the water produced q tidal I
1ave that would have swamped any :
Oat and would have seriously trou-
led ship. Within minute or two
wave more than ten feet high swept
y the little island that we were on, f
'llowed by others gradually dlmin- I
hing in size, and it was nearly an l
our bsfOre We would trust ourselves =
1 the canoe. We would have had a
'olicsOme time If we had been caught v
canoe when it occurred. The L
-ater was agitated nearly all night, .
nd the ice cakes and bergs rubbing /,
nd grinding against each other rum "
led and grumbled for hours. 1t In