The Portland daily press., 1894-09-17

A great many years ago-exactly how
many / never could find out because
the men who have told me peacem cal
the story which l am now rehearsing
were never very certain themselves
whether it was 10 or so or 10000 years
ago. and were withal pleasantly liberal
with their centuries that it somehow
seemed mean to urge the matter; but
at any rate great many years ago, one
might have visited unattended the far
northern regions toward which Peary and
Nansen are struggling, and thought no
more of it than as somewhat long
and toilsome summer journey.
The way northward would have led
through forests much the same as those
which grace New England and the
middle States today, or with an aspect
even more tropical than these and many
smaller plants suggesting those familiar
to ua now, would have frightened his
part.
Even over distant Greenland and into
those desolate regions where so many
brave and hardy explorers have persisted,
he might have wandered, finding all as
warm and bright and teeming with life
as are our own ATTITUDES today.
One thing, however. would have made
such an undertaking adventurous, if not
dangerous, and that is the hideous and
country in those times. Great flying
beasts. huge hulks of flesh like over
grown elehants, colossal lizards, and all
manner of uncanny breathing things
would have relieved the stroll north
ward OF too tame and pastoral ten
dency. In a word, long time ago the
temperate regions of our earth, with
plants whose families at least still -four
ish, and nonstrous unncouth animals
now happily extinct, extended over the
arctic regions.
But for some reason or other, or for a
plumber of reasons together-reasous
which it would lead us too far ahead to
consider now-this warm, sunny, plant
clad region about the North pole began
to grow colder. And, as century after
century passed, gradually, but relent-
lessly, the snow began to accumulate.
At first it didn't melt away as early in
the spring as it was wont to do, and
there seemed to be more of t, and it
got packed into solid masses of ice in the
valleys and the cooler places. By and by
there was snow all the year round, and
IuOro anu more lC0 lOTIueu. ne animals
were driven southwark and the plants
| died off. Finally ice and snow covered
everything and formed great masses
| hundreds OF feet thick.
The worst of it was that this was not
| confined to the far away regions about
the north pole. The ice sheet crept
| slowly southwark like a white shadow;
over Greenland, over British America,
over northern Europe. Great bodies
l Of w q tor-1ok r;uore and ink nd
were frozen solid, and still the white
terror crept slowly on. Down over New
England, over New York State, over
the region of the great lakes, over Ohio,
and into Pennsylvania and New Jersey,
and over many of the northwestern
States.
This ice mantle was hundreds, in
great hills, the White Mountains, the
Adirondacks aud the Catskills, were
either altogether covered up, or just
showed their tips, like tiny islands in
the great white solid sea.
Now it was so cold all over the north
ern part of North America. that this
ice mantle once formed stayed there for
thousands of years; But it wasn't still
| by any means. When ice and snow col-
| lect in great masses, filling up valleys
and covering the land. it has an enor-
| nous weight, and although ice seems SO
| solid and firm and brittle, it actually
| does when on slopes or when pressed upon
| from behind flow like thick molasses or
| asphalt, only very slowly. But its mo-
| ton, when in such huge masses, is ire
| sistible, SO that great rocks are torn
| away from the cliffs and carried off,
| sometimes con top of the ice rivers.
| sometimes at the bottom, sometimes
buried deep out of sight. Often rocks
| are broken aad ground to fine powder as
| they are held fast a. the bottom of the
ice mass and pushed along the solid
rocky surfaces beneath. Furthermore,
| these rock surfaces over which the
| slowly moving masses slide, now move,
though rough and jagged they may be,
are rounded off and ground smooth. OF
| by the stones which the ice mass holds
| and grinds against them, they are deeply
| grooved and scratched. DIR. T. Mitchell
! Pruden in Harper's Magazine.
| Real Estate Transfers ?