Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1895-08-21
GLACIERS.
PECIuIARITIEs OF THESE VAST
MASSES OF ICE.
Glaciers Not Infrequently 1000 Feet
Thick-Animals Preserved Thou
sands of Years-How Gla-
ciers Are Formed.

geological theoriesare OF any
y account, Manhattan Island
and the neighboring country
Law underneath a hugh glacier. 1t has
been suggested that the condition ol
Alaska to-day corresponds largely WITH
that of this vicinity as it was Just PIE
v1ous to the beginning of recorded
history. Ten thousand years Is only
a brief interval IN time and in the
record OF the earth's career, yet It
would wipe out all that is most inspir-
ing, aud that has come down to us OF
value in the records of man. The
study of the glaciers within a few
years has accumulated a wide range
of knowledge relating to them. Re
cent Investigations indicate that the
thickness of these vast ice fields has
been generally underestimated. They
are not infrequently 5000 to 1000 feet
thick, and often they ? over 500
feet. or a mile or more in depth.
The peculiarities under which the
glaciers existed, or in which, in some
instances, they continue to exist, af-
ford scope for endless inquiry. Thus,
in the debris and the half-melted ice,
are frequently found animal remain:
preserved by this natural refrigeratin2
process for many thousands of years
In Northern Siberia, the settler, dig.
ging though the earth for water,
comes upon unmelted glaciers, and
in some instances, these glaciers are
still found beneath thick beds Of lava
that have flowed above and cooled
upon them. The climatic conditions
requisite for forming a glacier are tha'
more ice should be produced each
year thanS is melted away. 1t thel
continues to swell from year to year
rising in the valleys above the sur
rounding hills, which act as dams &c
hedge il in and hold it. All the while
vast quantities are melting and run.
ming away in swift. icy torrents, scour'
ing out the valleys, cutting down the
hillsides, and carrying away the I'M
dersupport of the vast mass whose
pressure continues to urge it forward
to fill the The course of the
streams which issue from the glacier
is that necessary to find their level,
and they point the route of the ice it.
self, which, under the slow, tremend-
u pressure, becomes of plastic, fluid
nature.
A small surplus from year to year il
q period of continuous cold, soon leads
to an enormous development of the
ice field. 1t flows over the smaller
hills, and if the mass reaches a level
plain, it continues to pile up its sur.
plus until that mass has reached o
height of thousands of feet, and pro
duced for itself the necessary slope fol
continuous movement. Thus from cen
tury to century the glacier continue:
to form and creep onward, until II
reaches its terminus IN a warmer local
ity, where it is melted more rapidly
than the ice is formed. The tremen'
dous pressure which results from q
vast mass of ice thousands 'of feet in
thickness, and extending for hundreds
of miles, is one of the causes also tc
which biologists have attributed the
changes in the contour of the earth.
The weight has, it is believed, gradu
ally brought about q depression in the
earth's surface. This has led to 0
modification in the climates, and tn.
terminal of the glacier has receded,
leaving once more the territory that il
covered a fertile and productive area.
If this theory should be correct, the
time may come when Alsaka itself
now q remote and austere climate, may
become the seat OF a dense and pros
porous population. Such a change
will not be greater than the difference
that exists between the Europe of to
day, and that country as it was known
to the civilized world previous to the
Christian era.-H. s. Fuller, inSchool,