A TRAMP ABROAD By Mark Twain

“The boulders from Mont Blanc, upon the plain below Ivrea,

assure us that the glacier which transported them existed

for a prodigious length of time. Their present distance from

the cliffs from which they were derived is about 420,000 feet,

and if we assume that they traveled at the rate of 400 feet

per annum, their journey must have occupied them no less

than 1,055 years! In all probability they did not travel so

fast.”

Glaciers are sometimes hurried out of their characteristic

snail-pace. A marvelous spectacle is presented then.

Mr. Whymper refers to a case which occurred in Iceland

in 1721:

“It seems that in the neighborhood of the mountain Kotlugja,

large bodies of water formed underneath, or within

the glaciers (either on account of the interior heat of

the earth, or from other causes), and at length acquired

irresistible power, tore the glaciers from their mooring on

the land, and swept them over every obstacle into the sea.

Prodigious masses of ice were thus borne for a distance

of about ten miles over land in the space of a few hours;

and their bulk was so enormous that they covered the sea

for seven miles from the shore, and remained aground

in six hundred feet of water! The denudation of the land

was upon a grand scale. All superficial accumulations were

swept away, and the bedrock was exposed. It was described,

in graphic language, how all irregularities and depressions

were obliterated, and a smooth surface of several miles’

area laid bare, and that this area had the appearance

of having been PLANED BY A PLANE.”

The account translated from the Icelandic says that the

mountainlike ruins of this majestic glacier so covered

the sea that as far as the eye could reach no open water

was discoverable, even from the highest peaks. A monster

wall or barrier of ice was built across a considerable

stretch of land, too, by this strange irruption:

“One can form some idea of the altitude of this barrier

of ice when it is mentioned that from Hofdabrekka farm,

which lies high up on a fjeld, one could not see

Hjorleifshofdi opposite, which is a fell six hundred and

forty feet in height; but in order to do so had to clamber

up a mountain slope east of Hofdabrekka twelve hundred feet

high.”

These things will help the reader to understand why it is

that a man who keeps company with glaciers comes to feel

tolerably insignificant by and by. The Alps and the glaciers

together are able to take every bit of conceit out of a man

and reduce his self-importance to zero if he will only

remain within the influence of their sublime presence long

enough to give it a fair and reasonable chance to do its work.

The Alpine glaciers move–that is granted, now, by everybody.

But there was a time when people scoffed at the idea;

they said you might as well expect leagues of solid rock

to crawl along the ground as expect leagues of ice to do it.

But proof after proof as furnished, and the finally the

world had to believe.

The wise men not only said the glacier moved, but they

timed its movement. They ciphered out a glacier’s gait,

and then said confidently that it would travel just

so far in so many years. There is record of a striking

and curious example of the accuracy which may be attained

in these reckonings.

In 1820 the ascent of Mont Blanc was attempted by a Russian

and two Englishmen, with seven guides. They had reached

a prodigious altitude, and were approaching the summit,

when an avalanche swept several of the party down a

sharp slope of two hundred feet and hurled five of them

(all guides) into one of the crevices of a glacier.

The life of one of the five was saved by a long barometer

which was strapped to his back–it bridged the crevice

and suspended him until help came. The alpenstock

or baton of another saved its owner in a similar way.

Three men were lost–Pierre Balmat, Pierre Carrier,

and Auguste Tairraz. They had been hurled down into the

fathomless great deeps of the crevice.