Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-30

BY WILLIAM f. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence Of The Star and the Chicago
| Record Herald.
| SHASTA SPRINGS, Cal,
| September %, 1905.
A few weeks ago. while the section men
| of the Southern Pacific railroad were blast
| ing rock for ballast at quarry at the foot
of Black Butte, one mile from Deitz sta
tion on the side of Mount Shasta. they
struck glacier, concealed behind seam
| less. solid ledge of granite. When the wall
of rock was removed by dynamite. a blast
| of Icy air burst out OF the crevices like
an explosion. and the workmen were al
most benumbed by the shock and sudden
change of temperature. The granite which
concealed the glacier was unbroken on
| the mountain side and has been used as
| a quarry for many years. 1t has furnish
| ed all the rock that has been used for ball
last on that section Of the Southern Pacific
railroad, and no one ever suspected that
| there was anything but earth behind 1t.
DR.. 7. c. Bremen, professor of geology
at Stanford University, was sent for at
| once. He removed more of the veneer and
| sixty feet without penetrating It. He was
not able to measure its dimensions, how
ever. but discovered that it extends under
the rocky side of the mountain for an in
L
or earth, but solid, precipitous wall of
| rock concealing and supporting the glacier.
| After several days of investigation DR..
Bremen returned to Palo Alto and is now
| People who saw him here tell me his theory
| Is that a large portion of the surface of
| Mount Shasta Is underlaid with remnants
of glaciers; that they have gradually be-
| come covered and concealed by soil and
| dislodged rock. and that forests have been
growing over them for ages, but this glacier
! has not moved nor has 1t seen the light OF
| day since the granite cliff which conceals
| 1t was formed.
Above the Timber Line.
| On the north side of Mount Shasta, above
the timber line. is a live glacier of large
size, and in one of its extinct craters is
| frozen lake-a small body OF water that is
perpetually frozen. The ice upon 1t does
| not melt away from year to year. Shasta
| is 14,444 feet high. In this latitude the
| timber line is about 9,0eO feet and the snow
| line about 10000 feet high. Shasta is al
ways covered with snow. except for two or
| three months in the summer, when the
south slope is sometimes cleared by the
| heat of the sun.
| The people of this neighborhood have
| long had theory that the northern side
| OF the mountain and much of the surround
| ing country is undertake with ice, the relic
! of the glacial age which has gradually be-
come covered with soil and silt; and GER
| tain remarkable phenomena are thereby
explained In the Yosemite and other parts
| Of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges,
springs appear at numerous points, and the
water bubbles up from the earth 1t
does in the east. But here. around Mount
Shasta, all OF the water gusheS out from
crevtces in the rocks on the sides of the
mountain and the foothills. not like ordi--
nary springs, but in cataracts. as if it
were under a tremendous pressure. You
can see hundreds of these little cataracts
from the car windows as you pass through
the canyon of the Sacramento river, be-
tween San Francisco and Portland. This
indicates that there are vast reservoirs of
water somewhere within the mountain, ap-
parently inexhaustible, for the fountains
have been flowing since the memory of
man, and their volume does not diminish
like that of other streams when the dry
season comes on. They are the source of
the Sacramento river and most of It's tribu-
taries.
Springs of Ice Water.
The water from all of these subterranean
sources is intensely cold-not many de-
grees above freezing point-about the same
temperature as If ice had been placed in it
several hours previous.
This applies to all of the springs and
streams which originate on the slopes of
Mount Shasta. As you go down the valley
the temperature of the water gradually
moderates. and twenty or thirty miles away
the springs are normal. Occasionally. how
Il
log cabin which is the headquarters Of the
rangers in the Mariposa grove of big trees
is a large spring whose waters are only
few degrees above freezing point, and in
this respect 1t differs from all other springs
in the neighborhood. The question is asked
every day, why is the water in that spring
so much colder than that found in other
springs in the neighborhood. There must
be an ice chamber at its source, and If so 1t
is a. very old one, because 1t has been flow
ing for ages, and within few feet of it
are trees which the botanists say are seven
and eight thousand years old.
You can get icewater by boring into the
earth almost anywhere at the base of Mount
Shasta. The way they dig wells here is to
take iron pipe twenty or twenty-four
feet long, hammer one end of 1t TO a point,
drive 1t into the earth it's full length, drop
a giant cartridge to the bottom and explode
it. The sharp end of the pipe will be blown
out and ice water will flow abundantly.
This Is not the first time that glaciers
have been found beneath the soil in this
country. A few years ago a saloonkeeper
on the road between Mott and McCloud,
about mile from Shasta Springs. in bor-
ing well struck a strata of ice thirty-eight
feet from the. surface. He bored into it a
considerable distance, put in his pipe and
has had an abundant supply of ice water
ever since.
Shasta Spring.
The famous Shasta spring stands under
shed alongside the railway station of the
southern racine SOHipdIiyt anu every Train
stops here long enough to give its passen-
gers an opportunity to drink as much as
they like Travellers from the neighborhood
bring bottles, demijohns and canteens to be
filed for home use. The spring is walled
UP with cement basin about six feet in
diameter, and plenty OF dippers are lying on
the rime While the Shasta water proper Is
perfectly pure, on the upper side or the
station is a second spring strongly impreg-
mated with minerals. and It gives out gas
that is said to be Intoxicating. 1t Is said
to be dangerous. also, and people are warned
not to inhale 1t. If you hold your face over
the basin you can feel 1t in your eyes and
against your flesh, and IL you inhale much
OF 1t 1t is apt to set you coughing The
water from this spring tastes strongly OF
iron and sulphur.
The station at Shasta Springs stands on
narrow ledge between the dashing, foaming
Sacramento river and an almost precipitous
wall of rock that is thickly clad with pine
and other trees and underbrush. From the
rocks at the roots of these trees half a
dozen wonderful streams burst out, some OF
them as big as the body of a man. and they
tumble down the side of the precipice ike
those you see in Norway. You can see
similar cascades all along the railway for
twenty or thirty miles in that neighbor-