The Savannah morning news., 1903-09-27

by some contrivance be brought to
where the heat is greater, down in the
valley. That is simple enough. AL
ways. If Mahomet will not go to the
mountain. then the mountain must be
brought to the prophet. So now we
have all the elements ready to work
out natures little contrivance; let us
see it at work. The little grains of
snow fall throughout the entire year,
and little grains of snow" as we
know. make a mighty mountain this
Is the snow field, or neve, or reservoir.
Cold and weight and pressure compact
it into ice, so that on top there is al
ways nice eiderdown of snow, and
underneath, hundreds and hundreds of
feet. as the centuries are many and
long, of hard, compacted ice. But we
have not yet brought it down to the
valley, where it can melt, it is still on
the bosom of the peak, where II can only
freeze. But nature has a mighty
hand called gravitation, and as this
pulls the rivers down, so likewise 1t
pulls the ice rivers or glaciers down,
down, down to where the warmer cline
begins to melt. And first ii melts off
the lowest part of the mantle of snow,
so that the dry ice appears, and then
as the dry glacier is pushed and showed
and pulled still further down, it be-
gins to melt off its feet and its toes,
and an unceasing stream of greenwhit-
ish water, filled with innumerable par
ticles of glacial grit, pours down in
thousand streams into the valleys,
and natures problem is done! She has
restored her circulation, and there is
no clog in any part of her system.
The Great IIIeciIIewaIt Glacier.
But even as we write this simple ex-
nlanation, here is the Great Glacier of
the Selkirks, with its beautiful Indian
| name, Ilecillewalt C'The Rushing
Waters'O almost close enough to put
our hand upon it. And then here is an
, observatory with telescope through
which we survey its fall, and its sum
nit, so we fall back upon Edward
| FEM, the best of the Swiss guides.
| What is on top, Edward?' "a great
sncw-feld, extending everywhere"
rs there any glacier in Switzerland
as large as this?" He hesitates and
begins to tell us of the mighty Matter
horn; but Edward, with home within
three weeks of him (for last night
snow is the beginning of the end, as the
! trail grows too dangerous from now till
next season., is suffering from the
Heimwehfluh, the inconsistencies of the
Swiss mountains, and sees only his ma
| tive land. Others more reliable than
| Edward, in his present frame of mind,
, tell me that the Illecillewalt is only one
! opening to vast ice-field more than
forty miles square! And around me in
every direction are other outlets, the
Asulkan, the Geikie, the Benny. the
Dawson, the Deville, the Lena, the
Evelyn glaciers, and mounting the peak
which l shall climb tomorrow, l shall
count, if the day be pleasant, quite
thirty of these wonderful ice-fows. SO
! leaving Edward, with the homesick
feeling for his Swiss native land strong
within his head, l mount the winding
stairs of the tall observatory tower
and turning the telescope upon the
! Great Illecilewalt glacier, this is what
/ the strong tense reveals A great
| flood of sunlight covers this mountain
of ice. At the top. I cannot tell where,
ice cloud ends and Heavens clouds be-
gin little down upon its bosom, the
! lesser clouds of the sky look cold and
blue against the pure white of the fresh
snow beneath. Then below stretches