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Glacier
THE CIRCULAR WALL ON THE LEFT INCLOSES ICEBERG LAKE. THE ENORMOUS
CIRQUE ON THE RIGHT, WITH LAKE HELEN SHOWN IN THE LOWER RIGHT-HAND
CORNER, IS THE SOURCE OF THE SOUTH FORK OF THE BELLY RIVER
Photograph by A.S. Thiri
THE CARVING OF THE GLACIER
THE titanic overthrust which makes Glacier what it is was not accomplished all at once. The movement covered millions of years; change might even have been imperceptible in the life of one living there—though this was long before man. And during these same many millions of years frost and water and wind and glacier erosion were wiping off the upper strata and carving the ancient rocks that still remain into the thing of beauty that Glacier is to-day. To picture this region, imagine a chain of very lofty mountains twisting about like a worm, spotted with snow fields and bearing glistening glaciers. Imagine them flanked everywhere by lesser peaks and tumbled mountain masses of smaller size in whose hollows lie the most beautiful lakes you have ever dreamed of.
Those who have seen the giant glaciers of Mount Rainier or the Alps will here see what glaciers of much greater size accomplished in ages past. Iceberg Lake, for example, is a mighty bowl shaped like a horseshoe, with sides more than two thousand feet high. A glacier hollowed it. Just north of it, the Belly Glacier hollowed another mammoth bowl of even greater depth; the wall dividing them is seen in the photograph on this page. Vast pits such as these were dug by prehistoric glaciers into both sides of the mountains. Often they nearly met, leaving precipitous walls. Sometimes they met; thus were created the passes.
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Last Modified: Mon, Oct 31, 2002 10:00:00 pm PDT
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