Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1918-05-14

eLAc1rB NATIONAL PARK u OF TIE
SANE GEOLOGICAL ERA AZ THE GRAND
CATION.

Glacier National Park 10 ono Of the
showiest exposures Of Algonkian rock
in the world, though that Of the Grand
Canyon 20 far 10 moro celebrated. The
Alg0nkian rocks are the oldest surface
rocks In the world, except whore the
GRANTEES and other igneous rocks OF the
Archean Era emerge upon the surface
principally In mountain ranges. These
Algonkisn rocks are principally sbales
and limestones; the shales show the
reds and greens familiar ct the Grand
Canyon In Arizona; the limestones turn
yellow on exposure to the air. Glacier
National Park 10 msrvelously oolored.
The Algonkisn rocks of the Grand
Canyon were exposed BY the Colorado
River washing ont channel more than
. mile deep. Those Of Glacier National
Park were exposed by being hoisted
thousands Of feet upward by internal
earth pressures, cracking along the sur.
face and one side Of the crack thrustIng
up and over the other side; then the
rains and frosts Of millions of years
washed away all the rocks on top OF
them and left the Algonkians exposed.
Then three succeeding Ice invasi0ns
from the north created mighty glaciers
which followed enormous cirques and
scooped out broad valleys.
TIL PLEASURE OF UNDERSTANDING.
In fact the greater joy of visit to
Glacier National Park, greater even than
the enthrallment Of It's extraordinary
scenery or the pleasure of living in It's
Businesses, IL this very revelation Of Its
past, the details of which are spread
before the eye with lavish eloquence.
There is no foot of its multicolored sur.
face which does not proclaim the tale.
The least effort Of imagination refills
these vast oirques and swelling valleys
with writhing serpents of Ice which
once bit and clawed these painted shales
into their ornate shapings Of to-day.
The tourist enters q labyrinth Of
enormous circular chambers whose
walls, which vary from two to five
thousand feet in height, are sometimes
the sides Of towering mountains, some
times mere. partitions of solid rock.
Sometimes, as with Iceberg Lake, these
chambers are 90 bitten without % we'll
as within that they seem more like
builded amphithesters than followed
cirques. The once enormous glaciers
which scooped them have long dis
appeared and their valleys are carpeted
with forests and flowery meadows and
jewefed with lakes Of incompatible
beauty. But far up north-side, slopes,
perohed upon shelves, shaded BY sum-
mits, lie what are left Of the glaciers,
sixty out of many times that number,
beautiful, futile, Insignificant remsinders
Gf q tremendous past.
A RIOT OF RICH COLOR.
To complete the picture imagine this
q country of many colors. The Algon-
khan strata here emerging consist OF
pale blue limestone below, which wealth
ers bright buff; of dull green shales
next above, which weather every shade
merging into deepest brown; of bright
red shales next above, which weather
into the richest purple; OF massive gray
Limestone, thousands Of feet OF 1t, next
above, streaked horizontally with. q
brosd band of grsnitelike diorite which
Is sometimes lead blue. sometimes dark
gray, sometimes dull dense black.
Imagine these colors tossed together,
oftenest In regular strata, frequently
upset, sometimes inextricsbly mixed.
Imagine the strata from east to west
sagging deeply In the middle, so that q
horizontal line across the park would
cut ita colors diagonslly. Imagine
whole mountains of yellow limestone
on Its sides, for instance, q Continental
Divide of massive gray limestone In its
middle. and mountains of slantlng reds
and green's and grays between.
Imagine milk-blue glacial lakes edged
with pink srgillite. Imagine rounded
winding valleys of spruce green. I'm.
agine the greater mountain masses
splashed with sulphur yellow liohen,
bearing snow and Ice upon their shoul.
derR Thia In Glacier