The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1894-08-29
Last Of the Zee Age.

put now "A change has come upon the
forces. terrestrial or celestial, when
nave wrought such havoc on our giooe,
and the long winter is drawing 10 a
close At first the snow and lee met
a little faster than ;hey form, and the
forbqding roCk-Clad edges OF the great
white uantl e. draws slowly backward. The
retreat Of The ice Is not continuous nor
steady. and for how many hundrcls or
thousands of years the herCe struggle
between heat and cold for the mastery
of the continent may have lasted no man
At last however in the region of North
America which We now inhabit. the sun
was victor. But he looked down upon deS-
olatiou which language can but feeblY de
scribe. Gone are the forests which through
earlier ages had rugsled Tor IoptHol4
on the hills; swept away southwark or
destroyed are the f0rhidding monsters
which wandered here. No green or grow
INK thing has outlived those frigid centu-
ries. o. WithstOod the scrapinE ana scar
ring Of the rocks. sharp cragS ana ragged
peaks upon the nils are worn ana
ground away, and old landmarks forever
eMaced. Some Of the great inland lakes
are leepeuCG. some are gone, - nile new
ones here and there are formed by the
dammiuE-up or ODllterduOn OF the Old
WaterCourses by the vast masses Of debris
which the vanishing glacier has left.
And now the life forces must begin
their work anew over this scene Of desc
iation. The ice mantle has left not only
loose rocks ana powders scattered and
piled in masses over the land. but great
gravel and clay beds here and there wit
ness the thorOuEhness of the work But
the manufacture Of soil suited 10 higher
plant life must be slowly accomplished
under the influence OF lower forms
And So .he plants cropt slowly back
over the bare, SCARED rocks: at first the
nchcns ana their lOwly brethren, then the
harder plants which had hung desperate
ly To- life along the borders of the ice
mantle for SO many weary. shivering
years. and at last as the long summer
claimed its own. the full tide Of green and
blossoming forms poured up over the re-
conquered realm, bringing with them in
scots. birds and beasts.
But Greeiand save for its scant YER
dant fringes. stll shivers I'm the grasp
of its age of ice. nOt vanished yet. And
If one would know how the regions which
We have just described, and now inhabit,
once looked, he has but to read the
thrilling stories Of the hardy seekers for
the North Pole, and especially the tale Of
Nansen's wanderings over the great ice
plateau Of Greenland whose mounta n
tops are even now but just beginning 10
peer out over the drcary wastes Of ice
and snow The plants and the animals
have come back 70 our regions because
return by land. over easy paths. 10 the
home from which they were driven. But
the warmer, inhabltable. sea~girt borders
Of Greenland are still only scantily en-
dOwed with living forms Of animals and
plants after all these centuries, because
there has been no way open 10 them to
travel home again. after their long exile,
save through the perious chances of the
sea From some Records Of the Ice
Age About New York" by T. Mitchell
Prudden, NJ D., In Harper's Magazine for
SepfpmbeT