Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (March 21, 1891)
1!)0 THE WEST SHORE. ;-':-;,f : - . t -r. " b: ' ' .f .... FRONT OK THK GKKAT MUIR CI.ACIKR, ALASKA. I northwest. 'I , most regular and typical is (lie Eliut, and litis is also the moit accessible, U ng hut half a mile from the stage road. This glacier is I hui ilrKribril l)' I'rofessur Lyman : " It rises in a depression between two monstrous butties rs of rock, which form the great precipice 3,000 feet in depth. I'own tin the accumulated snows of winter are hurled in the ava lanches of Mliumet, bearing with them fragments of rock, which, falling upon the lower projittiims, wear the cliffs steeer and the gulfs deeper. By its fall he snow is crushed and hardened. It slides over irregularities by which it is roken into culej, wedges, prisms nearly every geometrical figure. Jammed Into a slightly im lined basin it is transformed into pure ice. The movement of the ire in the basin Is northeast, until meeting a low ridge it is deflected northward, t n kcd into numlerless fissures, through a narrow pass. Here the ice is again compacted, and moves with little fracture to its terminus. The upper levels are worn in many places into circular holes as regular as wells. Slrr.iT" of w.uer falling into them carve their sides into all manner of fantastic designs. The lower portion ol this glacier is entirely covered with debris, hem e the first view is disappointing. Instead of the crystal pinnacles imagination has formed, we see a dark wall, looking like rock, except that it ft.-'--'- 1 ' V r'l.OATINli H'KHKKliS IN ULUUK HAY. ALASKA. shines here and there where the thawing is so rapid as to wash away the sand coating. It wastes away at the rate of twenty feet a year, and has become less steep with the wearing process. From beneath rushes a noisy torrent, thick with pulveriicd rock. This is the main fork of Hood river." Of the Coe glacier Professor Lyman says : " This is the smallest, but most beauti ful, of all. From the precipitous walls of Barrett's spur, rocks constantly de scend with thunderous sound. Recently a cliff at the head of this glacier split asunder and fell into the abyss with a crash that' shook the country for twenty miles around, The cracks and seems of the Coe glacier, the rainbow tints about the edges darkening into the indigo of the lower depths, are of marvelous beauty." This is the one which contains the huge crevasse shown in the engraving. Similar in their characteristics are the glaciers of Mount Rainier, Mount Adams and others of the great snow-capped peaks that sur mount the Cascade range and form such commanding features in the land scapes of Oregon and Washington. Far more tragic and beautiful is the fate of the Alaskan glaciers from the slow disintegration that is the end of the ice rivers of the Cascades. These frozen streams that flow through the mighty canyons of that region find a watery grave in the mighty Paci fic. The two best known are the Muir and Davidson. Both of these present to the ocean a solid wall of glistening green, the color ing being most brilliant and beautiful, This wall is many feet in height, as will be realized by a compari son of objects as shown on the picture of the front of Muir glacier. Against this shining wall of ice (he waves dash, gradually wear ing away the base until, with a noise like the dis charge of heavy ordnance, the overhanging cliff of ice falls into the sea, throwing the water high Into the air and creating a huge wave, that causes the floating bergs to pitch and toss about like vessels in a V'' Vr 1'w- m, tt '