Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-01-11
STUDY OF A GLACIER
CURIOUS FEATURES OF ThE CREEP
 ING MASS OF ICE.
In the Summer It Ia Noisy With the Voice of Many Waters-Often Gray In Color From the Debris Gathered In It's Mountain Journey.

In Color From the Debris Gathered
 In It's Mountai,, Journey.
 Although we are far removed frou the ice age In point of time. the tourist agencies have made 1t easy for one who has week or two to spare and few pounds in his pocket to visit countries where glacial conditions still prevail
 Probably the first impression of most visitors to a glacier is that it Is very like It's picture, There are the snow crowned mountains. There Is the ice filled valley There are all the va rieties of moraine just as the text books depict them. The first impress sion, however, Is very superficial one. Glaciers are just like most things In this world. When we get to know them we find they are quite different, we expected.
 As acquaintance rifens we find out all sorts of little things which the writers of text books doubtless know perfectly we'll, but never thought of mentioning. things which perhaps were so familiar to them that to de scribe them would have seemed like saying that rain Is wet or that snow Is cold, but which nevertheless i'll the novice with the pleasure of having dis covered the unexpected.
 One of the things which first struck the writer when he first spent few days in the near nelghborhood of ture 1t was. Somehow one associates with snow and Ice the idea of intense quiet, and no doubt If one climbs high up among the snow on the mountains one will find it quiet enough. But lower down on the surface of the glacier there is, at least In summer time continuous noise.
 The noise Is the voice of many wa ters. All around are lnnumerable lit tie rivulets caused by the melting of the Ice in the heat of the summer sun. These trickle and babble and splash their sinuous courses for longer or shorter distances, but none go very far before they plunge headlong down one | of the numerous Assures or crevasses Some seem to fall into larger tor rent far below. Others make their way Into some glacial mill where stones are churned round and round. just as one may see in the potholes in the stream at East Linton.
 By listening lntently one may be I xH A ,f,,o, nI h, gling with the voice of the waters, Miniature avalanches contribute their quota of noise. Now some pinnacle of Ice topples over and sp!inters into a | thousand fragments. Amor handful of stones come aiding down the side of ridge of ice, perhaps to splash Into pool. An these various causes combine to produce wonderful amount | of noise.
 Another curious feature of glaciers Is that the surface of the ice in many instances appears quite extraordinarily dirty. This does not seem as 1t should be. Snow Is one of the symbols of from the pure white snow on the mountains should be pure also.
 Yet when We view glacier from little distance we are often sur prised at the enormous amount of de bris gathered on It's surface. Besides the central moraine or moraines-often there are several-composed of consid
 erable masses of stone, we find finer
 particles of matter imbedded in the ice all over the surface. often in sui ficient quantity to give 1t a grayisf color.
 All this solid matter has at one time or another fallen upon the surface oi
 the glacier and is being borne along
 by 1t as river bears along the sticks
 and leaves that fall into 1t. But II
 the case of a glacier we may have ex
 posed to view the accumulations ol
 hundreds of years. At the lower enC
 of the glacier there Is much of inter
 est In the first place. there is yer,
 often a great cave in the ice. and iron
 This cave often looks as If 1t ough
 to be explored, and it may be possibl
 to make ones way under the ice for { ] considerable distance.
 But let the traveller beware. Expedi
 tons of this kind are far from safe The interior of a glacier may be stud l led safely enough in the grottoes an' tunnels which are carved into the liv ! ing ice of many show glaciers. such a
 that of the Rhone, but the Ice at tn T debouche of the stream Is in an LII l stable condition. Every now and the , the cave partially collapses or grea n masses of ice fall from the roof. and |
 moment an unwary tourist may b | trapped or crushed to death. - Edir ( burgh Scotsman.