The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-07-26

had marked with innumerable scars the
closing of the Tertiary age. was still ac-
tive in the further elevation of the tenn
perate zone. BY degrees the once balrnv
air became chilled: great cloud masses
from equatorial regions were driven
northward and emp6ed their frozen mots-
ture on mountain tops on elevated table
lands and plains. Centuries passed dur
ing which the frigid blasts beat against
and over the giant mountain walls. When
tne nerce storms had ceased and exhaust
ed nature had resumed her wonted tran
guilty, our now terrified spectator VEN
tured forth and from his lofty point of
vision looked forth on another seemingly
fTghtful calamity. As far as mis- ewes
could penetrate, fields of ice and snow.
hundreds of feet deep. covered the earth
with not even one dark spot to relieve
the dazzling whiteness. He listened. The
deep roar of rushing avalanches intermin-
gled with the uninterrupted crushing
grinding noise of huge glaciers relieved
the frigid silence of what seemed an uni
Versal death. During thousands of years
those great ice rivers slowly moved with
irresistible force down the mountain sides
toward Beaver. Clear Creek ard Marys-
vale Enormous ma of rock were torn
from obstructing lodges and. crushed and
ground into flagmen-s, We're carried down
10 the valleys. Canyons gulches and ra-
vines Were ploughed deep into the living
rock ana the debris moved to lower att
tudeS. In many places the Gaping was
torn from blind" lodges and veins. thus
revealing their precious contents of metal
slowly sinking to less frigid attitudes.
FROM underneath the glaciers, rushing
torrents carried the finer particles of mat
Ter 12r out into the valleys. forming the
Ioundation for more fertile soil. The thou
sands OF streams thus flowing from the
upper ne4ds OF melting SHOWS formed in
the western portion of Utah. that great
prehistoric lake known to the world as
Bonneville. BY slow degrees the noun
talns and valleys settled down. the eli
mate became warmer, the glaciers con-
tlnueq 70 shrink until their suNen voice
was hushed in the completion of their !
labor. The savage face OF nature had !
been smoothed and rounded Lakes were |
dried or shrunken to mere miniatures, /
cred the plains and mountain sides. while /
forests once more occupied all favorable (
Ioca Ifties- From the royal dome of old /
Badly our spectator looked forth on the
finished world waiting in fresh beauty for /
the occupancy and subjugation of immor-
tai men.
Had but one link in the chain of events
wrought by that mighty and complex evo-
luton been omitted. mans dwelling place
you'd have been incomplete, the Infinite
Design unrealized.
With our meditations there comes a
feeling of awe and increased generation
Tor the Power that fashioned the earth
ana gave TO ii its proper axial inclina-
Ion; tnat determined its. orbital and diu-
ual motions: that clothed It with ver,iure
cereals. fruits and flowers: that updurned
he lndurated rock-strata that man might
edcn the SuDterranean wealth prepared
or his use and progress. Not alone in
hose essential conditions do we discern
he wonderful provision for mans exist
nee but also in the configuration of the
mountain systems. Were ii not for such
ofty- elevations as the Mt Badly range
which traverse this intermountain region
rom north to south. and which arrest
ne heeting moisture and condense it into
torn clouds. and that hold in their deep
eflles the precious SHOWS of winter. Utah
nd the adjoining states would be as bar
en- and wind-scorched as the Desert of
ahara.
NIGHT COMES ON.
While our party regretfuily fingers over
he thought that the notwithstanding sun
I'LL soon force US from the scene of such I
ldeScribable grandeur. the shadows have
cen creeping to the east enveloping the
fooded gaens in darkness. Gradually the
uuines of distant mountain ranges are
'st to view: the deepening shadows I
ierge the details of nearer objects into {
'eird indistinctiveness, and in the swiftly /
gloom we prepare for our de- c
,ent TO the little lake, while our thoughts :
lStanctlVely turn to the prospect of a I
neerful campfire, to the rude but frugal g
are OF campers larder, and to hard /
Ut reStful bed on mother earth, ever soft Y
nd grateful to tired limbs 5
]. F. GIBBS t