El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-05-13
--BY-
Frank G. Carpenter
Tv9vaIino In Comfort Over Fields of Frank Carpenter
Ice, Among Glaciers, Alaskan Novelty "''a
RAILWAY Runs Route ana l ~ ~
O.
Copyright. 1915. by Frank
G. Carpenter.)

.,,. ocean at high tide. There are many
t'fdoes AT Mile 16 the bridges seem to
20 from island TO island. We are cross
NJ me mouths of the stream. As We
icft Round island We passed through
,ovrshedS on the flats. it is an unusual
tbins 10 build snowsheds on the level
A little further on we crossed Long
Ind and at Mile "a came TO the Hot
cake Channel bridge. It IS so called
-suse a marty of engineers were shut
ton and for weeks had nothing to eat
mt hot cakes They called the place
Hot cake channel, and so it is known to
this day. ,.,-- .,.--
+I,e ,pav 90 the foot Of the mountains. 1t
winds about through the delta. crossing
tbo channels The engineers had to
wade through the mud to lay out the
roufs and il was hard to find a solid
roadbed At Mile % we were only -
mics from the Boring river coal field.
and % miles further on came to the
1aTroyv passage through which the
road runs between the Miles and Childs
Glaciers. Here the road crosses the
Miles Glacier bridge which cost more
than 81, 500, 900 to build. and then goes
ON its way up the mountains.
Is Great Glacial harden.
The Copper river valley is a great
Glacial garden. Just east Of Eyak lake
g
and six miles in length. 1t is only seven
roiIes from the track. but is OF so little
account that II Is seldom placed on the
man. sheridan glacier is about . miles
from Cordova and within two miles of
the railway. This glacier rises in snow
fields about mile above sea level and
ends in a great bulb shaped tongue
which is only four miles in length and
three miles in width. The TERMINUS is
a mighty pear of ice $50 feet above sea
level
sherman glacier which flows south
westward for a length OF over seven
miles and not far from the railway is
Pickett glacier, an ice tongue more
than four miles i'm length. And then
there are Saddlebag glacier which is
south Of Pickett and Goodwin glacier
which expands into a bulb of two or
three miles in width where it enters
the valley The Mcpherson glacier
which can also be seen from the rail-
road. is seven miles long, while Good
win has a greater length by three miles
or more.
Two Mighty Glaciers.
The two gightiest glaciers Of the
Copper River valley are the Miles, ana
the Childs. Childs glacier is within a
quarter Of "A mile or so of the track,
and Miles glacier is in plain sight as
YOU sit in the cars facing the Childs
glacier bridge. OF these two the
Miles glacier is by far the larger 1t
rises in the snow fields of the noun
tains and il is probably so miles long.
Where il enters the Copper River val
lev il spreads out in a great bulb,
which at the end is six and one-half
miles across. It is about II and one
half miles around the whole front The
waters of the glacier flow into the
Copper river. but there is also a lake
in front OF it which is about two miles
in width and four miles in length
Our train stopped on a switch near
the bridge. in plain sight of both gla-
ciers. and we had an hour or so to look
at the Childs glacier. which is within
10 miutes walk OF the railroad. We
left the cars and made our way over a
trail through a thicket of green bushes
twice as high as our heads. We crossed
open places where there were great
patches of pink blossoms and ferns and
grass that reached TO our waists As
we went onward the stones and bowl
ders increased in number, and upon
leaving the bushes we entered the ter
minal mOraine Of the glacier, which Is
made >up of rocks Of all sizes down to
pebbles as big as a pea.
Mighty Wall Of Ice.
The vegetation had now disappeared
and we stood on the bank Of river
whose glacial waters looked like skim
milk. We we're right under a mighty
Ice wall Lual dSCeuutu SlIdlb 1T W AAoll
the water to a greater height than that
Of the dome of our capitol at Washing
ton This wall is washed by the river.
1t extends along the banks of the
stream for a length Of four miles and
runs backward for more than 10 miles
up the valley. 1t is composed of broken
and uneven cliffs Of pale green ice, from
which ice masses are continually fail
ing 1t is estimated that more than
eight billion pounds of ice break Off
from 1t every year. That would be
enough to load a train of cars 500
miles long, or enough to give so pounds
to every man, woman ad child in the
United States and leave some TO spare.
When the Ice Breaks.
The breaking of the ice is caused by
the melting and also by the force of
the great ice river as it flows slowly
down from the heights The move
ment- of the glacier varies in speed
from time to time. During the years
1906, 1907 and 1908 il came forward
only two or three feet a day, but in
1909 its motion increased to five or six
feet and in August 1910, il was ad-
vancing at the rate of 80 or 40 feet