The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1900-10-25
COUDERSPORT ICE MINE.
EMARKABLE SOUVENIR OF THE
GLACIAL ACE IN PENNSYLVANIA.

nomenon-t Ia visible From May
Until October Every Year-Tcn Thou
sand Years It Has Lasted.
Coudersport, Penn, does not occupy
very conspicuous spot on the map,
but today Coudersport Is noteworthy.
'Greenland's icy mountains and In
lIas coral strand" in juxtapositlon,
an ice cave under foot aud troplc heat
over head, are Coudersport's twin IT,
ties to fame In Northern Pcnnsylva-
ola. as well as nearly everywhere else
in these United States. 1t was unusu-
! ally hot last summer, but i'm this ham,
+ let, in Potter County, one had only to
| descend rude ladder, leading to
small cavern under ground. to find
frost icicles and December zephyrs.
Icy stalacttcs ranging from an inch
TO three feet in thickness hung from
he roof of the Coudersport lice mine"
during one of the hottest hot waves
Of last August. According to the
statements of men of good rcpute in
that ncighborhood 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 phc-
nomenon is this: Eons ago Southern
New York. Northern ana Northeastern
Pennsylvania were covered to Il ire
mendous depth by glacial deposits
Scientists have dug down aud found
far below the ground, where the
c0rth's heat should have increased
materially over the surface tcmpcra-
turc, streams of icy cold water The
subterranean flows were the liquid re-
malnders of the great glacier which
swept across Canada, 10y 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, 1883, Professor III. Colvillo Lewis
presented a map showing the bound
AIRY of this glacial area in connection
with an exhaustive lecture which he
delivered before the institute ON
"rhe Great Terminal Moraue Across
Pennsylvania"
In the beginning of his monograph
Professor Lewis says:
when Agassiz, over forty years ago.
after a 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 were startled at
what then seemed an impossible hy-
pothesis.
To-day there is hardly a truth in
geology more widely accepted or capa-
bic of more conclusive proof"
Three phenomena plainly indicate
the progress of the great Northern
Drift: % the mantel of Tin" (a de.
post of stones and clay unstratifcd by
watcr), which lisa 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 90 the smoothed or striated
rock surfaces, another glacial remind
er All these go TO prove the correct
ness of Agassz'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 continuous sheet to its final
halting place only sixty miles north
of Philadelphia. At its edge, as OBJ
served in Pennsylvania, this glacier
must have been 800 feet thick. A
hundred miles back from its edge, !
among the Catskills, it was ut 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 MS recently as |
10000 to $1,000 years ago. Professor |
Wright finds from Il study of glacial |
"kettle holes in Massachusetts that |
the accumulation of peaty matter in |
il, whether caused by growth of veg
etable matter or by winds ana rains, |
Is equal to Il level deposit of eight feet
in thickness. At the rate of one inch
in n century which is probably less
than the true rate, according to Pro
fessor Lewis, this would place the
close of the glacial epoch at less than
10000 years ago.
In Kansas similar ice cavcrns or
"kettle holes,' have been found In
the Kansas journal of March. 1897
Mr.. j. Ritchle describes in detail these
Ice caverns and other glacial phenom
ena, and the Kansas journal previous
ly printed similar dissertation by
Professor n. Nj. Lowe, but none of
these kettle holes equal in interest
the Coudersport find.
Its precise location Is four miles
southeast of Coudersport -Four years
ago William O'Neill. mineralogist of
no small knowledge and experience in
Potter County, Pennsylvania, felt
convinced that he could lind II silver
lode on the farm of John r. Dodd sit,
uated in Sweden Valley, near Cou-
dersport, Consulting with the owner,
rIg. L.. 4.