Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-08-22
PRISONER OF GLACIER.
Awaiting Delivery Of Body Buried In
Ice Forty Years.

| Ice + orty years.
| The world is about to witness the
denouement Of one Of the most tragi-
cally curious dramas ever enacted.
On September 6, 1870, John C.. Ran
dali, wealthy banker of Quincy.
Mass, fell down into a crevasse in a
glacier while climbing Mont Blanc, in
the Alps.
A body falling into a glacier Is pre-
served until 1t emerges at the spot
when the Ice melts and changes into
a river. Young girls have fallen into
glaciers and have been restored to
their lovers with all their girlish
beauty outwardly preserved, after
thirty or forty years in the ice, when
all their companions Of the same age
have changed into elderly women.
| The present year Is the one in which
the body Of Mr.. Randall should be re-
turned to the world, according to the
laws Of glacial motion. His second
daughter, Miss Edith Randall, has
gone to Switzerland to await the recov-
cry of her beloved fathers body, an
object to which she has devoted her
life.
| A glacier Is q river Of ice which
flows on until the increasing tempera-
ture at lower altitude changes 1t into
water Although ice Is apparently a
solid, 1t acts in the case of glacier
| like a very thick viscous fluid. When
| the channel Is too narrow or tortuous
the ice cracks forming those vast
crevasses in which so many Alpine
climbers are lost. The crevasses sub
sequently close up.
Professor Tyndall and Professor
! Forbes, of Edinburgh university, have
calculated that the Blossoms glacier In
which Mr.. Randall was lost moves at
a maximum speed Of thirty-seven
| inches a day In sumTe er and at about
half that rate in winter. He was lost
/ at a spot about ten miles above the
outlet Of the glacier, and 1t can easily
be calculated that at an average speed
throughout the year Of twenty-five
and three-quarter inches a day the
body would be released In about forty
Years Four hundred and fifty-hye
bodies have been given up by this
glacier.
The Blossoms glacier is 52s feet deep
at it's deepest part. In this, as In all
glaciers, motion Is least at the bottom
and greater toward the surface. The
middle flows faster than the sides
These facts have been proved by driv-
ing peSS ihto vol iouS PeNi - VI o.
cier.
The glacier dwindles down to very
small dimensions through evaporation
and leakage in various directions until
II ceases to be a glacier altogether
Heavy bodies are held In the residlum
| Of ice until the last moment, and 1us'
at the point where the glacier changes
into q mountain stream skilled Alpine
guides with lines and grapnels viii
wait to rescue the long-expected re-
mains.
Miss Randall herself here describes
her remarkable preparations. she wa
the second of four children. Hell
mother on her deathbed In 1891 speci.
ally charged her with the duty o.
watching out for her beloved fathers
body:
| have every reason to believe tina,
the time has come, forty-one years az
ter the death of my father in the Bos-
sons glacier, when I will be able tc
recover his body at the bottom OF the
hill in the village Of Chamounix.
I believe that he will step from MS
lev tomb as he appeared in life. ano
that I shall recognize the beloved fea-
lures of my father as I recall him
when I was very little child.
My father at the time of his death
was fifty-one years old. 1t had beer
his life ambition to reach the summit
Of Mont Blanc. For years and years
he had planned trip through Europe
and to scale the summit Of the noun
tain had been his one great desire. Be-
ing director Of several banks In Quin-
CIV had occupied his time so much tha'
he had never been able to take Vaca-
ton. ,o,o /,
] At last. I'm the summer of 1870, he
did find the required time and started
for the great trip. He toured Europe
and eventually arrived In the little
village of Chamounix at the foot OF
the glacier. Here he stayed at the Ho-
tel des Alpes, where he became ac-
quainted with two other companions
a DR.. James B. Beane, OF Baltimore
and the Rev. George McCorkendale, OF
| Scotland. These two met the same
fate as did my father.
| Arrangements were completed 1oi
the ascent Of the mount by all three
The party consisted Of the three traV'
elers. accompanied by eight guides.
| They started early in the morning
and the people at the inn below WITT
powerful glasses followed their climt
TO the summit. A few hours later
thew began the descent. The watch
ers at the inn were still following tnell
movements with their glasses, wnen
at about $50 o'clock in the AFTERNOON
one of the sudden storms peculiar &c
the region came up. The entre
mountain became black, ana tne
watchers saw the forms OF all the mer
disappear suddenly from view.
So severe was the storm that 1t last
ed four days, during which time tne
good people of the village prayed pul
found It impossible to make searcn
or attempt to go to the relief OF the
travellers. .,
After the storm subsided somewhat
a searching party consisting OF guides
and villagers was made up. A tnor'
ough search was made, ana uurlns
this a snow hut was uncovered con
tanning the bodies Of five men !ne9
were the guides and companions Oh my
father. Evidently my father and the
others had attempted to reach the
Grands Mulets, a level spot where the!
could have obtained shelter for mum
her of days, but while attempting to
locate this pass they had groped blind
ly until all had fallen into a deeE
crevasse Of the glacier.
After finding the five bodies the
narty gave up all hope Of finding the
others, Our family in Quincy was
notified by a society there which IN
terests itself in such matters. The en-,
fire town of Quincy was greatly
wrought up over his death. The bodies
of the five victims found were iaid
peacefully away in the little Englisn
graveyard at Chamourix.
After that communication was es- @
tablished by members Of our family
with people in the little village, VINO, no.
through their experts, informed us
that there was no possible way for us
to recover the body until very many
years had passed, when the glacier
would have moved down far enough 20
cast up in the valley the bodies II hau