Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1901 — Vision of Great Beauty. [ARTICLE]

Vision of Great Beauty.

The fascinations of a glacier are as witching as they are dangerous. Apostolic vision of a crystal dfy glorified by light “that never land or sea” was not more beautiful than these vast Ice rivers, whose onward course Is chronicled, not by years and centuries, but by geological ages. With whitedomed snow cornices wreathed fantastic as arabesque, and with the glassy walls of emerald grotto reflecting a million sparkling jewels, one might be in some cavernous dream world or among the tottering grandeur of an ancient city. The Ice pillars and silvered pinnacles, which scientists call seracs, stand like the sculptured marble of temples crumbling to ruin. Glittering pendants hang from the rim of bluish chasm. Tints too brilliant for artists’ brush gleam from the turquoise or cryetnl walla Rivers that flow through valleys of Ice and lake* hemmed In by hills of Ice, shine with an azuVe depth that Is very infinity’s self. In the morning, when all thaw has been stopped by the night’s cold, there is deathly silence over the glacial fields; even the mountain cataracts fall noiselessly from the precipice to ledge in tenuous, wind-blown threads. But with the rising of the sun the whole glacial world bursts to life In noisy tumult Surface rivulets brawl over the ice with a glee that is vocal and almost human. The gurgle of rivers flowing through subterranean tunnels becomes a ronr, as of a rushing, angry sen. Ice grip no longer holds back rock scree loosened by the night’s frost, and there is the reverberating thunder of the falling avalanche.—New Yonc Evening Post.