Living Glaciers of California.
HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. -;./ NO. CCCVI.-NOVEMBER, 1875.—Vol. LI. =v// LIVING. GLACIERS OF CALIFORNIA. UIAULOi- mHE Sierra Nevada of Cali- .JL fornia may be regarded as one grand wrinkled sheet of glacial records. For the scriptures of the ancient glaciers cover every rock, mountain, and...
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1875
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| Summary: | HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. -;./ NO. CCCVI.-NOVEMBER, 1875.—Vol. LI. =v// LIVING. GLACIERS OF CALIFORNIA. UIAULOi- mHE Sierra Nevada of Cali- .JL fornia may be regarded as one grand wrinkled sheet of glacial records. For the scriptures of the ancient glaciers cover every rock, mountain, and valley of the range, and are in many places so well preserved, and are written in so plain a hand, they have long been recognized even by those who were not seeking for them, while the small living gla- ciers,,lying hidden away among the dark recesses of the loftiest and most inaccessible summits, remain almost wholly unknown. Lookiug(from the summit of MwiTrtHBiabJjo across the San Joaquin Valley, after the atmosphere "has been washed with winter rains, the Sierra is beheld stretching along the plain in simple grandeur, like some immense wall, two and a half miles high, and colored almost as bright as a rainbow, in four horizontal bands—the lowest rose purple, /\ Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by Harper and Brothers, in the Oflico of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Vol. LI.—No. 306.—51 05-957 I 770 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. the next higher dark purple, the next blue, and the topmost pearly white—all beautifully interblended, and varying in tone with the time of day and the advance of the seasons. The rose purple band, rising out of the yellow plain, is the foot-hill i'egiou, sparsely planted with oak and pine, the color iu great measure depending upon argillaceous soils exposed iu extensive openings among the trees; the dark purple is tho region of the yellow and sugar pines; the blue is the cool middle region of the silver-firs; and the pearly band of summits is the. Sierra Ups, composed of a vast wilderness of peaks, -variously- grouped, *d segregated by stupendous canons and swept with torrents and avalanches. Here are the homes of all the glaciers loft alive in the Sierra Nevada. During tho last fivo years I have discovered no less than sixty-five in that portion of the range embraced between latitudes 36° 30' and 39°. They occur scattered throughout this vast region singly or in small groups, on the north sides of the loftiest peaks, sheltered beneath -broady frosty shadows. Over two-thirds of the entire number are contained between latitudes 37° and 38°, and form the highest fountains of tho San Joaquin, Tuolumne, and Owens rivers. The first Sierra glacier was discovered in October, 1871, in a wide, shadowy amphitheatre, comprehended by the bases of Red and Black mountains, two of the dominating summits of the Merced group. This group consists of the highest portion of a long crooked spur that straggles out from the main axis of the range in the direction of Yosemite Valley. At the time of my discovery I was engaged in exploring its neve" amphitheatres, and in tracing the channels of the ancient glaciers which they poured down into the basin of IlliJouette. Beginning on the northwestern emromity of the group with_Maunt Clark, I examined the jj chief -trilmta*ies- in succession, their moraines, rqqlws moittomiecs, and shining glacial pavements,, taking them as they came in regular course without any reference to tho time consumed in their study. The monuments of the tributary .that poured its ice from between Rod and Black mountains I found to bo-Ssj'tho girTtnrrest of them all; and when I behold its magnificent moraines ascending in majestic curves '. to the dark; mysterious soli-tndea at its head, ttrv'-' *- was exhilarated with the work that lay . before me, as if on the verge of some grea* '' discovery. It was one of the golden days of Indian summer, when theAmmmeJi&all.±he roughness from-the rockiest alpine—-ltrmt- -scapes; The path of the dead, glacier shone as if washed with silver, the pines stood transfigured in the living light, poplar groves wore masses of orange and yellow, and .solidagoes were in-fatt- bloom, adding gold, toj gold. .,, J i.t): , k -Mr Pushing on over my glacial highway, I passed lake after lake set in solid basins of granite, and many a thicket,and meadow watered by-the stream now eferrkiirg over naked rock where nolTa leaf tries to grow, now wading through plushy bogs knee- deop in yellow and purple sphagnum, -er ,\ briTshnrg-through luxuriant garden patches Cl,x among larkspurs eight feet high and lilies fl with thirty flowers on a single stalk.- The main lateral moraines bounded the viewT on 'J either side like artificial embankments, cov- fyijpfe\ ered with a superb growth of silver-fir and pine, many specimens attaining a height of two hundred feet or more. But -alt this garden and forest luxuriance was speedily left behind. The trees were dwarfed. .The gardens became exclusively alpine. Patches of the heaihy bryanthus and cassiope began to appear, and arctic willows, pressed into flat closo carpets with the weight of winter snow. The lakelets, which a few miles down the valley were so richly broid- ered with meadows, had here, at an elevation of about 10,000 feet above the sea, only small mats of carex, leaving hare glaciated rocks around more than half their shores. Yet amidst all this alpine suppression the sturdy brown-barked mountain pine tossed his storm-beaten branches on ' ledges and buttresses of Red Mountain some specimens over a hundred feet high and twenty-four feet in circumference, seem- . ingly as fresh and vigorous as if made wholly of sunlight and snow-. Evening came on just as I got fairly with- ' in the portal, of the grand fountain amphitheatre. I-foundltiQ_be about a mile wide in the middle, and a little less than two miles long. Crumbling spurs and battlements of Red Mountain inclose it on the north, the sombre, rudely sculptured precipices of Black Mountain on the south, and a hacked and splintery col curves around from mountain to mountain at the head, shutting it in on the east. I chose a camping ground for tho night : down on the brink of a glacier lake, where a thicket of Williamson spruce sheltered me from the night wind. After making a tin-cupful of tea, I sat by my camp fire, reflecting on the grandeur and significance of tho glacial records I had seen, and speculating on the developments of the morrow. As the night advanced, the mighty rocks of my mountain mansion seemed to come nearer. The starry sky stretched, a cross from wall to wall like a coiling, and fitted closely down into all the spiky irregularities of the summits. After a long fireside rest and a glance at my field-notes,T cut a few pine tassels for a bod, and fell into tho clear death-like sleep that always comes to the tired mountaineer. Early next morning I sot out to trace the ancient ice current back to its farthest re- I ' -v-A- LIVING GLACIERS OF CALIFORNIA. 771 cesses, i filled- with that inexpressible joy experienced by every explorer in nature's untrodden , wilds. The mount- ' ain voices were stilly ' as—in the hush of evening; the wind .Scarce stirred the branches of the mountain pine; the sun was up, but it was yet too. cold for the birds and, iljl mar-iftets—only the' stream, cascading from pool to pool, seemed wholly awake aad—doing. Yet the spirit of the opening/ -Weoerrrrg- day called to action. The sunbeams came streaming gloriously through „_ jagged openings of the col, glancing on ice-burnished pavements, and lighting the mirror surface of the lake, while every sunward rock and pinnacle burned white on the-- edges, like melting iron in a furnace. -I p'assedi,round the north shore of the lake, and—then' followed the.gtudaiice .ef- the stream back-into the recesses of-the -amphitheatrer It led me past a chain of small lakelets set on bare granite benches, .and.- connected by cascades and falls,- The sceneryAbecame more rigidly arctic/ J The last dwarf pine was left-far below, and the stream was bordered with icicles. - As the sun-advanced, rocks were loosened on"shattered portions of the walls, and came bounding down gullies-and—coulkirs in smoky, spattering avalanches, echoing wildly from crag to crag. The main lateral moraines, that stretch .-so-ib-rmafiy- from the huge jaws of the amphitheatre out into the middle of the Illilou- ette basin, are continued upward in straggled masses, along the amphitheatre walls, while separate stones, thousands of tons in weight, are left stranded here and there out in the middle of the main channel. Here, also, I observed a series of small, well-characterized, frontal moraines, ranged in regular order along the south wall of the amphitheatre, the-shape-and-sie- of -each-moraine corresponding- with-the-shapes and sizes of THE UKGGSOIIRUN11 OF BLACK MOUNTAIN GLAOIKK. the -dairy shadows cast by different portions of the walli. JTlris correspondence between moraines and shadows afterward became plain. Tracing the stream back to the last of its chain of lakelets, I noticed a fine gray mud Covering1 the stones on the bottom, excepting where the force of the entering and outflowing currents prevented its settling. On examination it proved to be wholly mineral in ,composition,--aiwL resembled the mud , worn from a fine-grit grindstone.'rT at once suspected its glacial origin, for the stream which carried it came gurgling out of the base of a raw, fresh-looking moraine, which seemed to be. in process of formation at that Y_ery moment. Not a plant, lichen, or weather-stain was ay-*wlTere visible wpou its rough, unsettled surface. It is from sixty to over a hundred feet in height, and comes plunging down in front at an angle of thirty-eight degrees, whieh—is- the *ry steepest at which this moraine material will lie. Climbing the moraine in front was; therefore, no easy undertaking. The slightest 0S 772 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. xf- MOUNT SHASTA GLAOIER. touch loosened ponderous blocks, that went rumbling to the bottom, followed by a train of smaller stones and sand. . Picking my way with the utmost caution, I at length gained the top, and beheld a small but well- characterized glacier swooping down from the sombre precipices of Black Mountain to tho terminal moraine in a finely graduated curve. The solid ice appeared on .all- the lower portions of tho glacier, though it was gray with dirt and stones imbedded in its surface. Farther up, the ice disappeared beneath coarsely, granulated suow. The surface of the glacier was still further characterized by dirt bands and the outcropping edges of blue veins that swept across from side to side in boau- tiful concentric curves, showing the laminated structure of the mass-ef-the-glacier ice. -A,t- tho head of the glacier, where the neve joined the mountain, it was traversed by a.-iuiga- ,-yawning.Bergsohriindydn some places twelve -e- fourteen feet wide, and bridged at intervals by the remains of snow avalanches. Creeping along the edgo of tho /Sghrmid, holding on with benumbed fingers, I discovered clear sections where tho bedded and ribbon structure was bean-tifully illustrated. The surface snow, though every where sprinkled with stones shot down from the cliffs above, was in some places almost pure white, gradually becoming crystalline, and changing to porous whitish ice of different shades, and this again changing at a depth of twenty or thirty feet to bluer ice, some of tho ribbon-like bands of which were nearly pure and solid, and blendait- with the paler bands in—the most gradual and exquisite manner- imaginable, reminding one of the way that color bands come together in a rainbow. A series of rugged zigzags enabled me to make my way down., into - the weird ice world of the Schrund. Its chambered hollows were hung with a multitude of clustered icicles, amidst which thin subdued light pulsed and shimmered with indescribable loveliness. Water dripped and tinkled overhead, and from far below there came strange solemn murmurs from currents that were feeling their way among veins and fissures on tho bottom. Ice-erfeafro'ns of this kind are perfectly enchanting, notwithstanding ono feels so entirely out of place in their pure fountain beauty. I was soon uncomfortably cold iu my shirt sleovesand-the leaning wall of the Sclirimd seemed ready to ingulph me.- VYet it was hard to leave the delicious music of the water, and still more the intense loveliness of the, light. Coming again to the surface of the glacier, I noticed blocks of every size setting- out on their downward journey to be built into tho terminal moraine. Tho noon sun gave birth to a multitude n GLAOIKB OF MOUNT RITTEB. A LIVING GLACIERS OF CALIFORNIA. 773 of sweet-voiced rills that ran gracefully down the glacier, curling and swirling in their shining channels, and cutting clear sections in which the structure of the ice was . beautifully revealed. ' The series of frontal moraines I had observed iu the morning extending along the base of tho south wall of the amphitheatre corresponds in every particular with the moraines of this a.etiw. glacier; and the causes of all that is special in their forms and order of distribution with reference to shadows now plainly unfolded themselves. ,jL. &_When those climatic changes Qfl/XAJw came on that -brrrke-4*p- the main glacier that once filled the amphitheatre froux-wall to wall, a series of residual glaciers was left in the cliff shadows, under whoso protection they lingered until they formed the frontal moraines we are studying. But as the seasons became warmer, or the snow supply be- Voame less abundant, they succession, all excepting the one we have just " examined; and the causes of its longer life are sufficiently apparent in the greater ox- tent of snow basin it drains and in its more perfect shelter from the sun. How much longer this littlo glacier will i,Jy:-'r Jxsfe will, of course, depend upon climate and the changes slowly effected in the form and exposure of its basin. Soon after this discovery I made excur- , J%'came le ,*r . A**!- in canons.of the'Tuolumne and San-Joaquin, and discovered that what at first sight and from a distance resemble extensive snow- fields are -goally active glaciers, still grinding the rocks over which they flow, and #rus completing the sculpture of the summits so grandly blocked out by their giant predecessors. , . That'these, residual glaciers are wearing the rocks on which they flow is shown by the fact that all the'streams rushing out from beneath them are turbid with finely ground rock mud. They all present solid ice snouts creeping out from beneath their fountain snows,, and all are carrying"thwn stones that have\fallen upon them.ttr be at length deposited in moraines. / All the specific crevasses of'glaciers aro also exhibited by them—marginal, transversal,and thejagged-edged Bergsclirund. Bj '' ' I Till-: NORTH RlTTKtt GLACIER DESCENDING INTO GI.AOIEK LAKE. some transversal crevasses, as, for example, near the middle of the eastern branch of the Lyell Glacier, sections of blue ico eighty to a hundred feet deep occiuywhilo the differential motion is manifested in the curves of the dirt bands and of tho blue veins and moraines,not a single glacial attribute being either wanting or obscure. But notwithstanding the plainness and completeness of the proof, some of my friends who never take much trouble to- investigate for themselves continued to regard my observations and deductions with distrust. I therefore letcr—- nlinfidctiBSitec stakes in one of the more accessible of the glaciers, and measure, their displacement, with a view to making the ordinary rVlemonstrat&i* -of--tsaa- glacial movement, while subserving other desirable ohjects at the same time,ft The Maolure Glacier, situated on the north side of the mountain of that name, seemed best fitted for my.purposes, and, with the assistance of my friend Galen ClarkjT planted five stakes aiAJmih the 21st of August, 1872, guarding against their being melted out by sinking 774 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. them to a depth of five feet. Four of them were extended across the glacier in a straight line, begiuning on the oast side about halfway between the head and foot of the glacier, and terminating near the middle of the current. Stake No. 1 was placed about twenty-five yards from the side of the glacier No. 2, ninety-four yards; No. 3, one hundred and fifty-two yards; No. 4, two hundred and twenty-five yards. No. 5 was placed up the glacier about midway between the Bergsclirund and No. 4. On the 6th of October, or forty-six days after being planted, I found the displacement of stake No. 1 to be eleven inches, No. 2 4tHBe eighteen inches, No. 3 to be thirty-four inches, No. 4 •te-be forty-seven inches, and No. 5 -to be forty-six inches. As stake No. 4 was near the middle of the current, it was probably not far from the point of maximum velocity— forty-seven inches in forty-six days, or about one inch per twenty-four hours. *s On setting out from Yosemite Valley to fix stakes in the Maclure Glacier, I invi- GLACIER OS THE NORTHEAST SIDE OF MOUNT EITTEK, SHOWING I?ROTRUl- ING ICE TONGUE AND A WEU-WORK OF CREVASSES. ted Professor Joseph Leconte to accompany me. He had already given in his adhesion to my glacial theory for the formation of Yosemite Valley, and I was anxious to direct attention to other erosive effects of the ancient glaciers in the formation of mountains, ridges, lake basins, etc., as well as to point out some of the newly discovered glaciers. Shortly after his return to Oakland he prepared a paper " On some of the Ancient Glaciers of the Sierra" which was read before the California Academy of Sciences, and afterward published in the American Journal of Science and Arts, in which he says, "Here, then" (on Mount Lyell), "we have now existing not a true glacier, perhaps, certainly not a typical glacier (since there is no true glacier ice visible, but only snow and n6ve, and certainly no protrusion of an icy tongue beyond the snow-field), yet nevertheless in some sense a glacier." The above is an exanxple of the rashness sometimes evinced by scientific observers in allowing themselves to decide upon imperfect data. Professor Leconte had never before seen a glacier of any kind, and did nothing more by way of investigation of this one than to spend a few minutes on the terminal moraine. Yet this, it seems, was deemed sufficient to enable him to decide " certainly" concerning it. Now the Lyell Glacier, which Professor Leconte approached, but did not set foot upon, was at the time of his visit (August 19) still covered with' winter snow. Had his visit been delayed- a few weeks he would have observed the required "icy tongue protruding from beneath the neve'" because by this time the sun melted the covering of snow, .and, according to his own chosen definition, the glacier suddenly became changed to . a typical one. As to the statement, "there is no true glaciei- ice visible" it is only necessary to observe that though there was none visible from the moraine where he was seated, there were many fine sections of "true glacier ice" visible in marginal and transversal crevasses, had he taken the pains to reach them. Great vagueness prevails concerning the essential LIVING GLACIERS OF CALIFORNIA. 775 QfyvlA RUSH GREEK GLACIER, ON THE EASTERN SLOPE OF THE BIERRA, NORTH OF MOUNT HITTER. ilAjtA characteristics of glaciers. The icy snout creeping down out of the nive fountains is not available for all glaciers at all seasons, because in years of extraordinary snow-fall the whole surface of some slow-flowing glaciers remains covered during the whole year, and would accordingly be classified as true glaciers one season, ndvefields another; and, as we- have seen, the Lyell Glacier, though nottypicalin August, became typical in .-.' /September. ' QsvA&Jv A glacier is a current of ice derived from snow. Complete glaciers of the first order take their rise on the mountains, and descend into the sea, just as all complete rivers of the first order do. In North Greenland the snow supply and general climatic conditions are such that, its glaciers pour directly into the ocean, and so undoubtedly did those of. the Pacific slope during the flush times of 'the glacial epoch; but now the world is so warm and the snow crop so scanty, nearly all the giaciei's left alive have melted to mere hints of their former selves. The Lyell Glacier is now less than a mile H long yet, setting out from the frontal moraine, we may trace its former course on grooved and polished surfaces and by immense canons and moraines a distance of more than forty miles. The glaciers of Switzerland are in a like decaying condition as compared with their former grandeur; so also are those of Norway, Asia, and South America. They have come to resemble the short rivers of the eastern slope of the Sierra that flow out into the hot plains and are dried up. According to the Schlagintweit brothers, the glaciers of Switzerland melt at an average elevation above the level of the sea of 7414 feet. The glacier of Grindelwald melts at less than7 4000 feet; that of the Aar at about 6000. /The Himalaya glacier, in which the Ganges takes.its,rise,,.does not, according to Captain Hodgson, descend below 12,914 feet. The average elevation at which the glaciers of the Sierra melt is not far from 11,000 feet above sea-level. The Whitney Glacier, dis= covered by Clarence Kiugyis situated on tho north side of Mount Shasta, and- descends ' "5" 776 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. i)u-.v . A,srr \0 ''.IV- to 9500 feet above the sea, which is the lowest point reached by any glacier within the limits of California. -Mrrrrrlr-ShrrstaT-lrmv' aver, is an isolated volcanic cone, and can not in onjsense. be regarded as a portion . of the Sietfa". Mount Whitney, situated near the southern extremity of the Sierra, althotigh the highest mountain in the range .(Tf6ariy~T5°TO0Cfi2eji), does not give birth to a . single glacier. Small patches of perpetual . snow and ice occur on its northern slopes, "but they are shallow, and give no evidence of glacial motion. Its sides, however, are still brilliantly polished by vanished glaciers that once descended into the main trunk glacier of Kern Valley on the west and to the Owens River on the east. Mount Ritter, about 13,300 feet in height, still nourishes.five. glaciers, which, though small, are-exredTngiy well characterized, and differ iu no particular from those of Switzeiiand,excepting in degree. The finest of the five is on the north side, and flows at first in a northerly direction, then curves toward the west, and descends into a small htae- glacier lake, whose banks around more , than half its circumference are buried beneath perpetual snow. The. outcropping edges of " the blue veins" are presented on the lower portion of this giacief,\sweeping across the snout in fine concentriccurves, scarcely marred by the rocky debris with which the glacier is laden. This beautiful glacier forms one of the highest sources of tho North Fork of the San Joaquin. Another of the Ritte'r glaciers, situated on the northeastern slopes of the mountain, is drained by a branch of Rush Creek, which flows into Mono Lakexon the east side of the range. All the sixty-five Sierra glaciers that I have observed are-a survival of the best fed and most favorably situated. The Sierra granite is admirably fitted for the reception and preservation of glacial records, and from these it is plain that *tW Sura ice once covered the whole range continuously as one sheet, •which'-ffMMlualiy brok-mp into individual glaciers, and these 1' 'again' into small residual glaciers arranged with reference to shadows. These last were very numerous; several.thotisand-existedon the western flank.ahjiw, differing in no way from those that still linger in the highest and coolest fountains. -, All the glaciers of California occur upon the north sides of mountains, andftow northward; or if they flow in an easterly or westerly .direction, they are contained between protecting ridges trending in the same-direction, i . -Furthermeser-.because the main axis of the Sierra extends in a north-northwesterly direction, the east side of the range is longer in shadow, and the greater number of the glaciers that occur along the immediate axis are on the east side. The transformation of sriow into glacier ice varies as to place and rapidity with the climate and with the form of the basin in which the fountain snow is collected. In the Sierra there is no definite snow-line, and therefore no fields of fountain snow extending to determinate elevations above the glaciers for the true glacier ice gradually to merge into. The change, therefore, of snow to flowing ice is more abrupt in the Sierra Nevada than in the .Alps or in any , mountain range possessed of perpetual snow not dependent upon shadows. The whole number of active glaciers in tho Alps is, according to the Schlagintweit brothers, 1100, of which one hundred may be regarded as primary. The total surface of snow, nev6, and ice is estimated at 1177 square miles, or an average area of about one square mile per glacier. Somo of the Sierra glaciers are as large; as, for example, the Lyell, North Ritter, and several that are nameless on the head of the South and Middle forks of the San Joaquin. The main cause that has prevented the earlier discovery of Sierra Nevada glaciers is simply the want of explorationsin the regions where they occur. T-be-labors- -of the-State-Geological-Survey-in--this connection amounted to .a-.sltght.,.reconnaissanee7 wjiile the common tourist, ascending the range,only.as far as Yosemite Valley, sees no-portion_of the true Alps containing the glaciers excepting a few peak clusters in- the.distance. In the Swiss Alps carriage roads approach within a few hundred yards of some of the low-descending glaciers, while the comparative remoteness and inaccessibility of the Sierra glaciers may be inferred from tho fact that, during the prosecution of my own explorations in five summers, I never met a single human being, not even an Indian or a hunter. THE FILLET. Love has a fillet on bis eyes; He sees not with the eyes of men Whom his fine issues touch despise The censures of indifferent men. There is in love an inward sight, That nor in wit nor wisdom lies; He walks in everlasting light, Despite the fillet on his eyes. If I love yon, and you love me, 'Tis for substantial reasons, sweet— For something other than we see, That satisfies, though incomplete; Or, if not satisfies, is yet Not mutable, where so much dies; .Ylio love, as we, do not regret There is a fillet on Love's eyes! R. II. Stoddakd JA/lAh https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/1007/thumbnail.jpg |
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