The Jasper news. [volume] (Jasper, Missouri) 1898-1924, 1908-07-16
HUGE BoWLDERs SCATTERED
OVER NORTHERN STATES BY
WIDE SWEEP OF GLACIER.
ICE DECLARED MILES DEEP
CONCEALED Liquid In Vast Quantities
Flowed Far Down Mississippi VAL
ley-underIyino Strata High
ly Polished by Motion.
BY @. FREDERICK WRIGHT, A. NJ,
u


IL. D.
tAuthor Of THE Ice Age in North Amer
ica, Man and the Glacial Pc
rod Etc.)
Copyright. Joseph B. Bowles.)
The story of the glacial period has
not been half told. Its wonders are
increasing every day. 1t is the last of
the great geological epochs, and has
not yet passed away. Greenland is
still shiver!ng under the rigors OF
glacial conditions. With the excep.
ton OF narrow belt of mountains
around the southern end, the whole
continent, some 100000 square miles
in extent, is still buried beneath ice
from one mile to two miles deep,
while the antarctic continent, with
still greater area. is 80 completely en-
veloped in ice that explorers have yet
been able to penetrate only the
merest fringe at two or three points.
But during the glacial period prop
er the ice to depth of more than
mile covered 100000 square miles
Of North America and 100000 square
miles in Europe. In North America
the southern border Of this ice field
extended into the ocean off the New
England coast. rising like great ice
wall out Of the water, and westward
to line running through Long Island,
across New Jersey and Pennsylvania,
to Salamanca, N. Y, where 1t turned
southwestward and, with many minor
variations, reached the Ohio river so
or 60 miles above Cincinnati, crossed
Kentucky and southern Indiana, reach
Ing its farthest extent at Carbondale.
H.; thence northwest, 1t crossed the
Mississippi river at st. Louis, and fol-
lowed the Missouri and Kansas rivers
to Topeka, where 1t swung northward
across the eastern parts Of Kansas
and Nebraska, and through central
Dakota to near the Canada line;
thence proceeding with long loop
where 1t crossed the Rocky mountains
and the Sierras) to Puget sound and
the Pacific ocean. II one had ap-,
preached this line during the glacial
period anywhere from the south, he
would have Immediately struck the
conditions Of Greenland, and found
them continuous for thousands Of
miles. Alaska still retains the stumps
of this great glacier, several hundred
square miles being covered by the
Muir glacier alone, and still larger
area by the Malaspina glacier, which
comes down from Mount st. Elias.
In Europe the ice fields radiated from
the Scandinavian peninsula, extending
across the North sea to southern Eng
land, and across the Baltic to central
Germany and southeastern Russia.
In thinking Of the glacial period 1t
should be kept clearly in mind that
glacial ice is simply compressed snow.
Glaciers are formed wherever there is
a snowfall which exceeds the melting
power of the warm season. Everyone
Is familiar with the fact that q snow
ball may be made as hard as ice by
sufficient pressure In the hands.
That ice in great masses could flow
like cold tar or molasses or any other
semi-fuid seemed, until short time
ago. impossible. and did not enter Into
the thought Of mankind. But about
70 years ago 1t was demonstrated In
Switzerland that the Ice was actually
moving down the valleys, proceeding,
not like an avalanche, but creeping
with a true flow. and carrying on Its
back and frozen into its mass frag-
ments of rock Of varying sizes, some
of them being as large as a small
house. Under the lee OF one Of these
rock masses on top of the Aar glacier