The Lubbock avalanche. (Lubbock, Tex.) 1909-1922, 1919-09-04

warm weather but such is the fact OF course,
they are formed in winter, but it takes the sum-
mer sun to set them adrift and send them float
ing on the ocean, grand sight to look at, but
fearful menace to vessels.
Icebergs are born every day in every month,
but most of them remain in or near their native
waters for a long time before they escape and
wander to the great lanes of travel between
here and Europe.
The bergs seen last summer are from two to
ten years od-that is, they have had an exist
ence individually for years, though the ice from
which they are formed is much older, some Of It
possibly having been frozen first thousand
years ago.
Icebergs are born of glaciers. and four out
of five of the floating bergs on the Atlantic
come from Greenland glacier is a river Of
solid water confined in the depresslons running
down the mountain sides.
Soft and powdery snow falls upon the sum
mits and though some is evaported, the yearly
fall is greater than the yearly loss, and so the
excess Is pushed down the slope INTO the valleys
which possibly az the time are covered with
green and have afforded pasture lands for cat
tie
The snow gathers in the high valleys and
every day undergoes some degree Of the change
which finally transforms il into ice Slowly,
very slowly. in some cases only a foot every
year this frozen river flows downward. Moth
ing can stop IT, nothing can even check IT.
The process is the same in Switzerland and
Greenland, only IN Switzerland the glacier melts
when il reaches the lower valley and feeds
rivers; in Greenland the glacier slides into the
ocean, breaks off and becomes an iceberg ana
floats away
One Of the incidents Of an ordinary Alaskan
cruise along the coast is 20 see the glaciers
break off and fall into the water. They are
far more beautiful than the finest Of the gia-
ciers Of Switzerland and in size they arc so
great that the largest Alpine glacier would
make only a fair-sized nose if it could be taken
bodily and placed upon the face Of one of the
Alaskan giants
At Glacier Bay icebergs are being born all
the while Muir Glacier. the largest that dlps
into the bay. presents front Of 1000 feet. IL
is 100 feet thick. fve-sevenths OF II beng UNDER
water II extends back for miles and miles.
Each day the central part moves 20 feet INTO
the sea the discharge every twenty-four hours
being l4O 900 600 cubic feet of clear ice. As
this great quantity cracks into pieces from the
glacier the bergs of the North Pacific begin
their ife. The separation from the larger mass
and the plunge into the sea cause terrific
noises
The interior Of Greenland is a solid mass OF
ice In fact some people think that at about
the central part of Greenland there is a high
mountain. around whose sides there has grown
through the centuries an enormous glacier
sending down in every direction branch glaciers
that extend TO the coast. IL is known that the
only part Of the land which is not covered COM
pletely by ice is narrow belt around the
shore.
Crossing this belt at hundreds of places are
the glaciers Some are only few hundred feet
wide and 80 feet thick, while others are several
miles wide and measure 800 feet from surface
90 bottom.
All Of these ice streams are making their way
10 the sea- and as their ends are forced out
into the water by the pressure behind, they are
broken off and set adrift as bergs.
Once the glacier extends into deep water,
pieces are broken off by their bouyancy, aided
possibly by the currents and the britteness OF
the ice.
The size of the pieces set adrift varies great
~. but a berg from so 10 100 feet TO the top of
its walls, whose spires or plnacles may reach
from 200 to $50 feet in height and from 800 TO
500 yards in length, is considered an average
size berg in the Arctic. These measurements
apply 70 the part above the water, which is
about one-eighth or one-ninth OF the whole
mass.
Many authors give the depth under the water
as being from eight TO nine tunes the height
above This is Incorrect, and measurements
above and below water should be referred 10
mass and not TO height.
IL is even possible TO have berg as high out
of water as il is deep below the surface. for II
we imagine large. solid lump, of any regular
shape which has very small, sharp. high pm
nacle in the center the height above water can
easily be equal to the depth below. An anthem.
tic case on record is that of a berg grounded
in the Strait of Belle Isle. in sixteen fathoms
of water, that had thin spire about one hun
dred feet In height.
Each glacier IN Greenland. 80 far Ms any estl-
mate has been made, is the parent each year
of from ten 20 one hundred lcebergs. When
these berVs have plunged into the Arctic Sea,
- -. lho ArcLln 1lLIlnnI and