Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1885 — Curious Features of Glaciers. [ARTICLE]

Curious Features of Glaciers.

The periodical growth and decline of the frozen rivers of the Alps are the most remarkable and least understood of glacial phenomena. For nearly thirty years most of the Alpine glaciers have been diminishing. Many of them have been reduced in length by hundreds and even thousands of feet, and have decreased in volume by millions of cubic feet. Between 1871 and 1875 every known glacier was decreasing in size. Then began the period of enlargement. The Bossons glacier of Mont Blanc commenced to creep down the valley again. Within the next four years three more glaciers began to grow. In the past two years fifty glaciers have begun their season of advancement. The period of diminution has entirely ceased in the western and central All is, but the glaciers of the Austrian Alps and a few others arq.still decreasing. These phenomena are not merely of scientific interest. To the inhabitants of many an Alpine valley the periodical growth of the glaciers is a season of dread and solicitude. Twelve great disasters that within the past two centuries swept many hamlets out of existence were all due to glacial growth. The great ice streams in their resistless progress tumble vast rocks down the mountains, uproot trees, shove the turf before them, and tear dwellings into splinters. Thrice has the valley of the Sass been desolated by a glacier that completely dammed the river, and thus flooded the country. Villages have been overwhelmed by great masses of ice that have tumbled from the advancing glaciers. While the period of glacial recession is one of comparative security, the season of growth brings almost constant anxiety and inquietude to the inhabitants. The Swiss Alpine Club has been engaged for some years in efforts to discover the law’s that govern these phenomena. Its President, Prof. Forel, in a recent report, says that some indications of the nature of these laws have been obtained, but they cannot be satisfactorily investigated until much more data have been secured. The society is accumulating a great number of observations, and Prof. Forel invites the co-operation of all scientific mountaineers and Alpine travelers in these interesting and important reseai-ehes. — Anon.