Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-09

ksaA---4 markable most OF all for its lofty
Iqg9SeI mountains and their enormous glac-
- iers.
Perhaps some of the boys and girls
may not know about the glaciers, and would
ike to have me tell just what they are, and
what there is about them so very wonderful.
/ will try to do so.
1t would be true to say that glacier is a
frozen river, though that would not be the
whole truth, for it's ice is formed from snow.
and not from water, like that on an ordinary
river. Nor is this snow-ice caused by freez-
ing-at least not generally so-but it is form
ed by pressure. Any boy will understand this
when he remembers that if he takes a soft
SNOWFALL in his hands, and presses it. the
the snow color gradually disappears, and tn,
ball becomes ice, more or less transparent.
PRESSURE and not freezing, has made the
change.
Mount Washington, in New Hampshire, is
one of the highest mountains in the eastern
part OF North America, and vet it is
only little more than six thousand feet above
the sea. In this country it would hardly be
CARED mountain, because of so many higher
ones. A few days since / stood on a summit
more than fifteen thousand feet high, and
there are scores of others which tower up to a
height Of above ten thousand feet
On these lofty. submits a great quantity
of snow falls during the winter months. and
remains unmeted throughout the summer, In
deed, 1t never melts very much at height
OF more than eight thousand feet above the
sea-level.
But, OF course, something must be done
with 1t, or 1T would become wonderfully deep
IN few years. And this is what happens
:. 1t slides down from the mountainous by
Its own weight. Mountain-sdes are not
smooth, but are marked by great ridges Of
Tock, with broad and deep gullies between.
In these gullies the snow collects till some
times it is several hundred feet deep. The
deeper it becomes, the harder does it press
upon what lies at the bottom, and in course
OF time there is stratum of many feet in
depth which has been made into ice by no 9th
er process than that of pressure.
At the same time the weight of the whole
mass is forcing it slowly down the mountain
side, keeping the course of the gully just as
a river follows along its bed.
have said the glacier is an ice river, and
so it is. Like a river it has a source; like
that it varies in depth, and in its rate OF
motion; follows its bed, has banks, has other
glaciers pouring into it, falls over precipices,
and at last ends in a stream of water-the in
variable outlet of every glacier.
These singular rivers vary greatly in their
flow, one Of the largest having been found
to move at the rate of eight hundred and
Others which only advance two or three feet
in the same length of time. They are also
nearly all of the higher mountains, and fre-
quently advance 80 far into the sunny valleys,
and melt away so suddenly at last, that it is
no uncommon thing to find cattle grazing and
beautiful flowers blooming within hundred
yards of ice masses more than fifty feet thick.
They vary greatly in breadth and in length,
for some are but few yards wide, while
others can only be crossed by an hours rapid
walking; and though some are very short,
there are others whose extreme length is from
twelve to fifteen miles.
An idea of their size and number may per-
haps be obtained when / tell you that they
cover surface of more than nine hundred
square miles in Switzerland alone,
statement, let us proceed to investigate a
glacier more closely. Imagine yourself to be
one of party about to set out on an excur-