The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1902-09-04
ARE GLACIERS INCREASING7
Millions of Square Miles OF Lane
Surfaces Are Covered by
Enormous Masses Of Ice.

For the past five years physical
geographers have been giving great
deal of attention to the study of gla-
ciers. One question that has inter
ested them very much Is whether since
the beginning of the historic period
the glaciers of the world have aug
mented or diminished in area. Nc
perfectly definite information with re-
gard to this question has been OBJ
tanned, though some general concIu-
sions have been reached, says seen
tific journal. 1t is traditional in the
Alps, however, and some other regions
that valleys now occupied by glaciers
were formerly pasture lands. On the
whole IL is certain that for several CEN
turtles till quite recently there was
gradual increase in the area of gla-
citation.
Glaciers everywhere are in a state
of continual movement-they are con
stantly increasing in length or short
ening. Climatic variations are. of
course, the cause of these oscillations,
though the influence of climate upon
glacial movement is not yet fully I'M
derstood. When the laws governing
the movements of glaciers are well
known the science of meteorology will
be considerably further advanced than
1t is to-day
There Is good evidence to show that
In the arctic regions in the eighteenth
century and in part of the nineteenth
an important extension Of glaciers oc-
CURED. In Spitzbergen, for example,
harbors which whalers had often Wis
tied In the seventeenth and early i'll
the eighteenth centuries were filled
later with glaciers, SO that they could
no longer be used by shipping. The
advance OF glaciers in Iceland S said
to have covered places that hal for
merly been the sites OF farms and
churches. Glaciers seem, within the
historic period, to have attained their
greatest extent about 1860. Since that
time few of them have grown to an
important degree. Many of them have
diminished In size. and others have en-
tirely disappeared. This phenom-
enon has been observed in all parts of
the world.
Probably few persons imagine that
glaciers cover so large an area as they
do. The land surfaces which are to-
day buried under glacial snow and ice
are supposed to be about 4,485, 900
square miles in extent, or more than
one and one-half times as large as the
United States. This enormous mass
OF ice is distributed very unevenly over
the world, and nearly all of it is in the
polar regions. Outside of the perpct-
uaily frozen north and south, only
about 1880 square miles of surface
are covered with glaciers.
1t will be interesting TO remember
that there are two distinct types Of
glacia phenomena-the Alpine and
the polar. One of the best examples
OF the Alpine type Of glacier is seen
In the Mer de Glace at Chamounix. A
circle Of peaks surrounds a depres-
sion, which is filed by compacted snow
and Ice known as neye. This Is the re-
servoir, the source of the glacier. In
this depression the snow, either fall
Ing from the heavens or brought by
winds and avalanchcs, accumuIatcs To-
great depth, is transformed into
neve, and begins to overflow down the
mountain side, n true glacier. 1t r.
thus seen that the characteristic fea-
ture OF Alpine glaciers is that they
occupy depressions in relation to the
surrounding topography.
On the other hand, the polar glacier
instead of being formed in a depres.
sion, occupies a eliminating position
above everything else. 1t is an enor.
nous cap, or cupola, rising above the
surrounding lands; ii is the dominant
feature far and wide. Such, for exam.
pie, is the great ice cap of Greenland
and 1t Is thought probable that an
enormously thick sheet Of ice may
cover continental mass OF land In
the antarctic regions, and form the
largest sheet Of ice in the world.
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AEDJCA DUHHHIHo