Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1907-07-24
THE Creep Of
n Glacier.

copyright, 1907, by Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate.l
Hans Britterman, the Swiss, passed
the years of his youth in the shadow of
the Matterhorn and finally took his
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
Bftterman for the first time. Not
mi8 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.
Seven inches a year." unused the
professor as he looked over the jum-
ble-"seven, and no more, no less. A
mighty mass fifty feet thick goes
grinding down into the valley, crush
ing and overriding everything, and
should a 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 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 a
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 uccession-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, but''
aCarnful naanf't nxcfatrf1tsd fha pro-
fessor as~he caught 1t knob Of Ice
and saved hin self. f'Upon my soul,
that was a bluHfSBR4gtffng move Of yours,
and it might hare resulted in tiinging
US both into the 6vasse."
And after hi reds Of years our