LIST OF GLACIÈRES.[68]
[68] This list is necessarily incomplete, and only approximately accurate in many cases.
NORTH AMERICA.
Buried or Fossil Glaciers, North Greenland. (W. E. Meehan, Philadelphia Ledger, 1896.)—On Robertson’s Bay is the plateau of the Verhoef Glacier, which is about 1500 meters long and 400 meters wide, and stands back only a few meters from the edge of the sea. This plateau, both top and sides, is a mass of flourishing vegetation, chiefly grass, which reaches above a man’s knee. From among this verdure buttercups, poppies, cinquefoils and dandelions thrust their golden heads in wild profusion. Similar buried glaciers are found in many places along the fiords of North Greenland.
Mr. Meehan gives a simple explanation in connection with the Verhoef Glacier. He says that this glacier formerly extended out into the sea, and that while it moved forward, the clump moss, which struggles for existence in Greenland gorges, could do little more than hold its own. In course of time, from some unknown cause, the glacier receded to the point where it now discharges, the part in the water floating away in the shape of icebergs, and the part on the shore remaining stationary. This was the opportunity for the clump mosses. Caring nothing for the cold they crept slowly over the quiet mass of ice and made their way first in thin net-like layers, later in thick masses, till they reached the rocky shore. Year after year the mosses grew, the young plants trampling underfoot the older; until the latter, rotting, turned into a rich mould. The seeds of grasses and flowers found their way to this, blown by the wind or carried on the feet of birds. The plateau now is a garden of green, gold and white. How long this will last it is impossible to say, as any time nature may unloose its hold, and the frozen river once more pour down into the bay.
Subsoil Ice in Alaska. (I. C. Russell, A Journey up the Yukon River, page 149, and Second Expedition to Mount Saint Elias, page 19.)—Professor Russell found ice covered by rocks and vegetation in several places in Alaska, especially along the southern edge of the Malaspina Glacier and on the Yukon River. He gives the following interesting account in 1890 of these ice sheets: "Throughout the length of the Yukon, one is frequently reminded of the high latitude drained by the great river, by seeing strata of ice in the recently cut banks, beneath the dense layer of moss and roots forming the surface on which the forests grow. One may frequently find ice even on a hot summer’s day, by scraping away the moss at his feet. In some instances the frozen layer has been penetrated to the depth of twenty-five feet, but its full depth has never been ascertained. In the banks of some of the streams to the north of the lower Yukon, strata of ice over a hundred feet thick have been observed, and the indications are that its total depth is considerably greater than the portion exposed. This subsoil ice is stagnant and without the characteristics of glaciers."
Subsoil Ice in the Klondike Region. (Philadelphia Ledger, December 30th, 1897.)—The Klondike mining country is covered with snow most of the year. The ground is frozen for ten or twelve meters in depth, down to bed rock. In some places the ground, which is protected by a thick moss, is not thawed out by the sun in summer. The miner cuts off the moss with a shovel, and then builds a fire, which thaws out the ground for five or ten centimeters. He digs this out, rebuilds a fire, and then continues this process.
Ice Cliffs on the Kowak River, Alaska. (Lieutenant J. C. Cantwell, National Geographic Magazine, October, 1896.)—On the shores of the Kowak River are a series of ice cliffs of from about 25 meters to 45 meters in height. On top of these ice cliffs is a layer of black silt-like soil some 2 meters in thickness, and from this springs a luxuriant growth of mosses, grass and Arctic shrubbery. The melted ice shows a residuum of fine dust, which while fresh emits a pungent odor.