Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-20
ARE GLACIERS 1NcREAs1Nep
enormous Areas Are Covered by These
Great Ice Rivers.

From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
FOR the past We years physical geog-
raphers have been giving great deal Of
attention to the study of glaciers. One
question that has interested them very
much Is whether since the beginning of the
historic period the glaciers Of the world
nave augmented or diminished in area
NO perfectly definite information with re-
gard to this question has been obtained
though some general conclusions have been
reached. 1t is traditional in the Alps, how
ever, and some other regions that valleys
now occupied by glaciers were formerly
pasture lands. On the whole, it is certain
tnat Tor several centuries till quite recently
tnere was gradual increase in the area
of glaciation.
Glaciers everywhere are in a state of
continual movement-they are constantly
increasing in length or shortening Gil
matte variations are, of course the cause
or these oscillations, though the influence
OF climate upon glacial movement is not yet
iuIly understood When the laws govern
ing the movements of glaciers are we'll
known the science of meteorology will be
considerably further advanced than it Is
today.
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 occurred. In Sptz-
bergen, for example, harbors which whal
early in the eighteenth centuries were filled
later with glaciers, SO that they could no
longer be used by shipping. The advance
of glaciers in Iceland is said to have COW
cred places that had formerly 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 i'm
portant degree. Many of them have d.
minished in SIZE and others have entirely
disappeared. This phenomenon has been
observed in all parts of the world.
Probably few persons imagine that gla-
ciers cover SO large an area as they do.
The land surfaces which are today buried
under glacial snow and ice are supposed
to be about 4,4S5 900 square miles in ex
tent, or more than one and one-half times
as large the United States. This enor-
nous mass of ice is distributed very I'M
evenly over the world, and nearly all of it
is In the polar regions Outside of the per-
petually 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 glacial phe
nomena-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
depression, which is filled by compacted
snow and ice, known as neve. This is the
reservoir, the source Of the glacier. In this
depression the snow, either falling from the
heavens or brought by winds and ava
lanches. accumulates to a great depth. is
transformed into neve, and begins to over
flow down the mountain side. true glacier.
1T is 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 in
steady of being formed in a depression, oc-
cupies eliminating position above every
thing else. 1t Is an enormous cap, or Gu
pola. rising above the surrounding lands;
it is the dominant feature far and wide.
Such, for example, is the great ice cap Of
Greenland, and it 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.