The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-05-16
sensers owing to the United States GUS

sensers owing to the United States GUS
toms regulations.
Everybody who can endure the strain
and fatigue should climb up on the
great ice field and look down into its
profound crevasses and view also this
magnificent panorama OF Arctic seen
cry. Breakfast dispatched. photo
graphs Of the ice wall from the steam
er's deck taken. alpen stocks and cam
era In hand. we are landed In small
boats on the Moraine slopes to roam
the shore and 60 forth in groups to
explore the glacier. 1t Is an easy walk
up the beach to the base of the Ice
cliffs A well-built trail and board
walk lead over the bluff and the quick
sands of glacial mud in the moraine to
the summit of the ice glacier which is
an immense rolling white prairie over
which a regiment of cavalry might de-
ploy, and where future tourists Will
travel on sleds, or even horses. There
Is really no danger to require the Ice
AK, rope, creepers, or extraordinary cos
tunes, unless the tourist goes out Of his
way and seeks them in the crevassed
regions. Rubber shoes and mackin-
toshes are a necessity, though quickly
cut by the sharp ice-crystals. Leading
the Dirt Glacier" which Is a treacher-
Gus place. full of sinkholes and quick
sands of glacier mud. where boulders
reel and sink beneath. This fine min
eral paste and mountain meal make u
sticky, slippery compound that hardens
like cement the incautious. like the
writer. got caught and drenched knee
deep twice i'm our, days roaming. l
should say the walk to the top of Muir"
to ,nilaS uhara the
boats land. this Is over rocks. gravel
and sand of the lateral moraine. At
one place an ice bridge Is crossed that
spans the river beneath. the roar of
whose waters among the ice masses be-
low Is distinctly heard. The summit of
the glacier Is furrowed with crevices.
Some have perpendicular walls of pure
ice many hundreds Of feet deep.
INTO CAVES OF ICE.
We entered some of these mysterious
ice caves piloted by the first officer of
our steamer. first through a sandy NOR
aine. then into "a crevasSe of solid ice,
which led into yawning chasms of in
terminable depths. We gazed into the
very heart and recess of the canyons.
saw new depths, and shades and tones
Of blue. and learned of colors. the ex-
istence of which the imaginat ton could
great subterranean rivers and heard
such rumblings, such peals, snaps and
crashes within this ice realm, as to i'm
| press and overawe US. Words can
scarcely describe the awful grandeur
of this great glacier-whether viewed
from the deck of our steamer, or close
to the front-which extends for two
miles across and towers from 250 to 300
feet high, or while walking on its very
summit among thousands of seams and
crevasses which descend into these un-
known depths. No camera, no pencil,
no vocabulary can do more than produce
a desire to see for ones self. The Taxa
| Norris and Davidson glaciers are each
wonderful, but Muir Is the grandeSt of
| all these great ice rivers that move with
| so majestic a step, sweeping down re-
lentlessly all obstacles in their broad
paths.
The disintegration of these immense
masses, some of them weighing thou
sands of tons. suggests the question.
How fast does the glacier move for
ward? Accurate measurement shows
that the glacier, like the river is al
ways in motion. BY Photographic evil
dence the glacier recorded one thousand
yards in four years. Prof. Wright, of
Oberlin. who encamped here, fixed its
advance at seventy feet in the center
and ten feet at the sides, an average of
forty feet perday. Prof. Reid. who took
daily observations for a long time.
places the number at seven, eight and
ten feet per day. Prof. Muir recognizes
a retreat of a mile between his visits of
1889 and 1890. Prof. Wright estimates
that stream of ice presenting a cross
section of about five million square feet
that Is 5000 feet wide by 1000 feet
! 1apn--iS emf nrtuu nY.f fa 1Iipu int o,ta
Bay at an. ayerageyrate of forty feet per
day. This woufdrglve about 200. .G00, ,OOO
feet Of ice per day falling off during the
warmest months of the year
WHAT VISITORS SAY.
The above three men. together with
Prof Davidson, are credited with the
great bulk of recent reliable informa-
tion we have Of this region. One says:
"The Mer de Glace in Switzerland which
washes the feet of Mont Blanc, Is but u
dwarf in size compared with the Muir
DIR. j. NJ. Buckley says: AS the
Muir Glacier is the grandest that the
tourist sees, far SURPRISING anythink
which the Alps, the mountains of Nor.
way, or the Himalayas can exhibit. II
may interest the reader to know some.
thing more of the number and size OF
those contained in our Alaska territory
The entire front of the coast chain Ol
mountains that forms our eastern Alas
kan boundary. from Mount Saint Ella.
to the mouth of the Portland Canal
contains over five thousand living gla
ciers of greater OF less degree, which ort
forever travelling to the sea. Muir ant
, Davidson are but parts of one great ic,
. field which, set down In Europe. woul(
cover the whole Swiss Republic"
. Kate Field says of the Muir glacier
. Imagine Niagara Falls frozen q sole
wall of ice, 300 feet high, moving to-
ward the ocean, and a similar wall ST,
or seven hundred feet under water ant
, the whole mass cracking and givint
. forth peals of thunder that rival tn,
heavenly artillery, and every few mo
, ments thousands of tons of lovely blu
ice crashing into the sea and startin,
, on voyage as icebergs-a peril to th
Arctic voyager-and you will have SOM
, slight conception of this imposing spec
, tacle."
, Dr. H. M. Field says: "To see tn
/ Muir Glacier Is an event in ones life
: like seeing Saint Peters at Rome. or tn
TAI in India. 1t Is a sight which doe
> not fade in the distance. Go where b
) may, still is he
BY the vision splendid
ON his way attended"
! till his eyes close ON all things carthl,
I and open on the purer light Of heaven,
f Here ends the six days experience @
the writer's Alaskan itinerary-a red
! letter day-a veritable epoch in his lif,
! j. h. RICHMOND.