Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1907-07-17
TIE Creep Of
II Glacier.

1867, by Mcclure
Syndicate.1

the AldttefuOFu anu uudlly lOOA Ills
place as guide.
One day Professor Huxley Of the
Royal Geological society arrived at
Hans native village for months
stay. After a week he decided to ven
ture up the Matterhorn to study the
glacial river further. He had been
there each year for five years, and the
frozen river was his subject. The pro-
fessor was a quiet, thoughtful man,
and his trips had always been made
with only his guide for company. He
so arranged it on this occasion, only
that his guide happened to be Hans
Britterman for the first time. Not a
mile from his home great wall OF ice
fifty feet high, from which huge blocks
split off at intervals of years, invited
the attention of tourists as the mouth
of the frozen stream.
His surveys proved beyond doubt
that the mighty tumble of snow and
ice and rock stretching for mile be-
fore him moved down into the valley
at the rate of seven inches year. 1t
was a movement SO mighty and steady
that no power on earth could check it.
''Seyen inches a year," unused the
professor as he looked over the jum-
ble-"seyen, and no more, no less. A
mighty mass fifty feet thick goes
grinding down into the valley, crush
ing and overriding everything, and
should man fall into the crevasse be-
| fore me am able to compute the time
when his head and frozen body would
| appear in sight in the valley, three
| miles away. 1t would take hundreds
Of years, but it would be found
The statement aroused the guides
curiosity to the greatest degree, and
he found himself doubling it. Neither
his father nor his grandfather had ever
made such a statement. They had not
even contended that the mass moved.
What assurance on the part of an en-
tire stranger to appear and make such
a statement and claim to be able to
fully corroborate it! Hans was piqued
and vexed. He finally became indig-
nant. 1t seemed like a criticism on his
own knowledge of the mountains.
Can it be so? Can it be 500" he kept
asking himself, and he walked away
few steps to contemplate the tumble
and wonder what was going on forty
feet below. His flesh crept as he
thought of falling into the deep Gre
vase to be entombed alive, to freeze
and die. to be carried along with the
| irresistible movement for hundreds Of
years. and then appear incased in the
icy wall in the valley. 1t would be a
horrible doom, but was the professor
correct In his computations? 1t was a
new train of thought for the young
mana birth of the feeling of curiosl-
ty. He could not express himself in
words, but he could think He did
think, and had not the professor been
too busy with his own thoughts and
words he would have seen strange
looks pass over the face of his guide
in quick succession-doubt, fear, Won
der, sudden determination He would
have lived his life and been sleeping
in the grave for centuries before the
professors body would appear in the
ice wall in the valley butt
Careful, man." exclaimed the pro-
lessor as he caught at knob Of ice
and saved himself Upon my soul,
that was laundering move of yours,
and it might have resulted in flinging
US both into the crevasse."
"And after hundreds of years our
dead bodies would have appeared at
the ice wall?" asked Hans in a thick
voice as he turned his face away.
eyes, after hundreds Of years. But
let me make closer computation. You
seem greatly interested in this matter.
You must have heard your father and
others talk of the speed Of a glacier.
Even you must have seen them showed
along several feet since you began
coming up the mountain. It Is full
three miles to the valley from this
point, and the glacier travels seven
inches a year unless there is an ava
lanche to temporarily arrest its prog
ress. Sit down beside me here, and I
will give you extra figures"
The guide cast q look of craft and
murder at the man with pencil and
paper and did not sit A doctor would
have but glanced into his face to dis
cover signs Of lunacy. The grimness,
the mightiness, the mystery Of the
Matterhorn, were affecting him for the
first time. The thought of being in
cased in a coffin Of ice for a century
did not alright him. On the contrary,
1t lured him. For moment he bent
over, hands on knees, and watched the
professor at his figures. Then he
Strengthened up and looked cunningly
| around. They had paused on q shelf
| OF Ice almost suspended over a Gre
vase. Let the weather change a few
degrees warmer and it would fall of
It's own weight. It seemed as if a
stamp Of the foot would send it down
now.
Il think have my figures absolutely
correct" said the professor without
raising his eyes. "In mile there
are'-
Hans sprang into the air and came
down as solid as figure Of stone. but
the shelf held. AS he landed, his feet
flew from under him and he shot over
the smooth Ice like a flash and disap-
peared into the yawning crevasse.
One instant he stood within touching
distance of his fellow man. In the next
he was plunging down to a cold and
silent eternity.
"Bless me. what a sudden acct
dent!' gasped the professor as he
sprang up. "Seven inches a year and
three miles to go, and the world will