Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-11-23
COUDERSPORT ICE MINE.
REM ARkABLE SOUVENIR OF THE
GLACIAL AGE IN PENNSYLVANIA.

Until october Every Year-Ten Thou
sand Years 1t Has Lasted.
Coudersport, Penn, does not occupy
a very conspicuous spot on the map,
but to-day Coudersport is noteworthy.
| "Greenland's Icy mountains and In
dia's coral strand" in juxtaposition,
| an ice cave under foot and troplc heat
over head, are Coudersport's twin tt
ties to fame. In Northern Pennsylya-
MIA, as well as nearly everywhere else
in these United States, 1t was unusu-
ally hot last summer, but in this ham,
let, in Potter County, one had only to
| descend q rude ladder, leading to a
small cavern under ground, to find
frost. icicles and December zephyrs.
| Icy stalactites ranging from an inch
to three feet in thickness hung from
the roof Of the Coudersport "ice mine"
during one Of the hottest hot waves
of last August. According to the
statements OF men of good repute in
that neighborhood this phenomenon
| is visible from May until October
every year, but this summer additional
explorations Of the ice mine have re-
vealed unwonted wonders.
| The scientific explanation of the phe-
nomenon Is this: Eons ago Southern
| New York, Northern and Northeastern
/ Pennsylvania were covered to n tre-
mendous depth by glacial deposits.
Scientists have dug down and found
far below the ground. where the
I NIL c1l hn, u
materially over the surface tempera-
ture, streams of icy cold water. The
| subterranean flows were the liquid re-
mainders Of the great glacier which
swept across Canada, by way of Lake
Erie, Pennsylvania, New York and
| Long Island to the Atlantic.
| In the Journal of the Franklin In
stitute of Philadelphia, issued in Jan
uary, 1888, Professor II. Colville Lewis
presented map showing the bound
ary of this glacial area in connection
with an exhaustive lecture which he
delivered before the institute on
1.-THE Great Terminal Moraine Across
Pennsylvania"
In the beginning of his monograph
Professor Lewis says:
"When Agassiz, over forty years ago,
after q prolonged study of the Swiss
glaciers, announced the conclusion that
large portions of the continents Of
North America and Europe were once
covered by an immense glacier thou
sands of miles in extent and several
thousands of feet In thickness, geolo-
| gists the world over We're startled at
what then seemed an impossible hy-
pothesis.
To-day there is hardly truth in
geology more widely accepted or capa-
BILE of more conclusive proof"
Three phenomena plainly indicate
the progress of the great Northern
Drift: % the mantel Of It'll" "a de-
posit of stones and clay unstratifed by
water), whichisa characteristic feature
of the Allegheny plateau, in Potter
County, Pennsylvania, (2) the longitu-
dinally scratched powders nowhere
found except In the vicinity of gla-
ciers, and (3) the smoothed or striated
rock surfaces, another glacial remind
er. All these go to prove the correct
ness of Agassiz's hypothesis, for simi-
lar phenomena are found at the foot
of many Swiss glaciers. Just as the
ancient Swiss glacier carried powders
| from Mont Blanc to the Juras, so this
great continental glacier carried them
from Canada across Lake Erie into
Pennsylvania.
| Just as the Greenland glacier now
| fills the valleys and overtops the
mountains, SO this larger glacier ad.
vanced over mountain and VALLEY
alike In a continuous sheet to its final
haltlng place only sixty miles north
Of Philadelphia. At its edge, as OBJ
served in Pennsylvania, this glacier
must have been 800 feet thick. a
among the Catskills, 1t was at least
3100 feet thick, while 200 miles fur
ther, In Northern New England, it
was 5000 feet thick.
There are data, says Professor
Lewis, which indicate that the glacier
did not finally withdraw from the
United States until as recently as
10000 to 1900 years ago. Professor
Wright finds from n study of glacial
"kettle holes" In Massachusetts taat
| the accumulation of peaty matter in
it, whether caused by growth of veg
etable matter or by winds and rains,
is equal to a level deposit of eight feet
in thickness. At the rate Of one inch
! in a century, which is probably less
| than the true rate, according TO To
fessor Lewis, this would place the
close of the glacial epoch at less than
10000 years ago.
! In Kansas similar Ice caverns, or
'kcttle holes" have been found In
the Kansas Journal of March, 1891
Mr.. ]. Ritchie describes in detail these
ice caverns and other glacial phenom-
ena, and the Kansas Journal previous
ly printed a similar dissertation by
Professor N. NJ. Lowe, but none OF
these kettle holes" equal IN interest
the Coudersport find.
IFS Dreclse location is four r1iIes