AN ALASKA FOREST. Enormous Trees Surrounded by Vast Fields of Ice.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 182, 11 December 1886, Page 5

AN ALASKA FOREST. Enormous Trees Surrounded by Vast Fields of Ice.

Wandekinci around near camp I was struck with astonishment at the great size of the troos of tho forest into which we had crept. Within twenty feet of our camp-fire were two trees, one of which measured twelve .eet poven inches and tho other seventson cot in circumferoncQ at lha height cl .'i person's arm from Uio ground. Tne latter had its thick, shaggy bark stripped oJH nearly to tho ground, being a dead tre«, and thus'losing much of its measurement. About thirty yaid* from ramp wa? n ti\n thnt gave twenty-one feet in circumfeience at about six feet from the ground. Thu inosfc a«-ton iahing part was <hat such a foic&t should ba found actually surrounckd by ice ten to twenty milo 3 acici in evory direction. Oi coui^e it is rta-jo'iiiblo to suppono that trees weie heie boloictho ice, aad that Ihisfor«?t piubibly oneo connected with the forc-t<* of the 11 it lands, Hcie was undoubted ovidenco thai this small forest wag being ohliiorated rapidly by tho achancing fiont of the Ouyot glacier, tho foot-ice grinding the huge treed info pulp and «pl»nter? as suroly as the quiirU-eruaher grinde the rock into powder. Trccst fivo and six feet through were bent over nn<\ splintered c*h if they v. ere brush, while eonae of the fallen trunka mco f-p!it longitudui.illy into perfect kindling-wood. It m.^ tho millb of tho gods grinding slowly, etc. Nor were they gi indmg =-o very slowly eirnor, as one could goo by comparing them with olhor g'acial action neai by. But a hrtlu way oft, probably half-a mile (o a mile away, was a small clump of wood?, into which the glacier in tho pa-t had protruded, as phown by tho fallen chattered trunks that lay neat the edge of a small mor.iine. from v, Inch tho glacier had now rerrearcd a groat number ot rods. Out norn ",he bristling hae of shattered tico trunk--, f)i\cd over each other for nearly or iuliy 100 y<ndB, all tho spjuco tree- vere do'ld, but still eLindin^, thoir \\hi!.c.-.pd trunks and long, gaunt limb* contracting btiangoly and curK-picuou-ly v. «th the t'-»tri still covered fohfigij thcit formed their background. Those doad evergreen 5 ? had been actually kille.l by tho }auximiry to the ice without its touching t'-ciu, and oi hei by its chilling influence, \u.n\j up through oui tho year tor probably c-uturie 11 , or the constant application of the : cc watji about their root 3 , preventing th ir grov.'th; for along this foot ico th'^re ip ahvav -> marshy stre im of ico witm ')r-ni)int> vii to the nearest muddy creek on 'll. This was trdc of the glacier loot, not ■■•, er iitty y<irus from our camp in the forest, Tjr heie* Avegot our water for cooking puipo (s, hut hero, also, thfaicoof the glacier had ■ triem iv cv.no forward £o fa«t that the t.i w -c"i ither killed by direct crushing of tiieir tiunk-and limbs than by tuo pIo-aoi one of the influence of great masses of i c iicar hyj*and it was possible to sit down -^i this fo.it-ice of tho Guyot gl.iciur, probably ten to tNvcuty fett thick at that p. ■»!;, and at the sains timo be under the f-hane of a h-ige evorgreen treo, if a person d^jired two coohng influences at tho sun c time T'mI came to the conciu&ion tl;»t Him fnnt or this great glacier v/aa liko the fingois of some huge radiating animal prolonging themselves outward and letiactinw again at long intervals, that would ie-quire many human lives one E-M^r the other so mea^ire a single stride and its bar>kwmi flow- — Frederick Schvsatka, in ■' Now Yoik Times. "'