The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-08
SOME BURIED GLACIERS.
Large Fields of Ice Covered IND err
Masses of LuXuriant Vege tution.

Masses of LuXuriaEt Vegetutiun.
w. F. Meehan, in New York independent
Eight or ten miles to the north. on the
same side of Robertson's bay. North
Greenland. is a plateau about mile
long quarter wide, and with precipit-
Gus face to the sea of fifteen to twenty
feet, and which stands back from the
waters edge not more than thirty or for
~ feet. To the west rise the lichen-cov-
cred cliffs to a hight of from 5000 TO 5000
feet. capped with towers and pinnacles
of brown basalt. To the north is the ter
rible and frozen expanse of the Verhoer
glacier. producing every few hours with
groans and cannon-like explosions, great
iceDergs This plateau, both top and
sides, is mass of flourishng vegetation
chiefly grass, which, when one walks
through 1t, reaches above the knees.
From among this verdure buttercups.
poppies, cinQuefoil and dandelions thrust
their golden heads in wild profusion Yet,
beneath this rich vegetable life, as glo-
rious in its luxuriance as in the meadows
OF temperate regions, without other
sustenance than that derived from de-
cayed moss and grass, Is a portion of a
dead glacier, a body of ice which is the
sole formation of that plateau. conquered
and buried in the first instance by the in
domitable travelling power of weak-look-
ing clump moss.
This sounds Ike a travellers tale but
the explanation of the phenomenon is
very simple, and similar examples are
found in many places along the fiords of
this north land. In the case of the pla-
teau many centuries ago, judging by the
thickness OF the growth of vegetation,
the glacier at the head of the bay, now
known as the Verhoeff glacier, extended
out into the sea, covering all the space
from cliff to cliff except a narrow gorge
on each side of the moving gigantic
frozen river. In these gorges clump moss
struggles bravely for existence, but while
the glacier moved forward, crushing and
burying everything in its path, this form
of eyegtable life could do little more than
hold its own.
In the course of time. from some I'M
known cause, the glacier began suddenly
to recede to the point where 1t now dis
charges, that part of it which was in the
water floating away in the shape of ice
bergs, and those which were on the shores
remaining stationary, to be slowly melted
by the summer sun. This was the oppor-
tunity for the MOSES. Caring nothing
for the cold, they crept slowly, inch by
| inch, over the quiet mass OF Ice, perhaps
then fifty or more feet thick, and made
their way, first in thin, netlike layers. and
then, as time passed on and strength was
gathered, in thick masses, till they reach
ed the edge, which fronted the bay. Here,
as the sun each summer slowly melted
| the face of the ice wall away, they matted
themselves firmly and dropped over, low
er and lower, until they reached the rocky
shore, and the huge block OF Ice was COM
pletely hidden. Year after year the
MOSES grew and hourished, the young
plants trampling the older underfoot UNI
| til the latter, rotting, turning into a rich
| mould, burying the conquered fragment
of the ice-king deeper and deeper. Then
grass seed found their way into the moss
blown hither by the winds or carried there
on the feet Of birds. They terminated
and increased, and by their greater vigor
in turn almost blOtted out the moss. To
give finish TO the charming picture this
created, blooming plants took up their
abode and fiourished until every summer
the plateau Is a garden of green, gold and
white How long this condition OF things
win last of course 1t is impossible to say.
At any time nature, who holds the Yer
hoeff glacier in check, may unloose her
hands, and then the frozen river win like
| ly pour down and out the bay once more,
| crushing beneath 1t in its flow the vege-
| tation which now holds its head in tri-
umph.