Mountains Young and Old

Professor Davis delivered a lecture on "Mountains, Young and Old," in sanders Theatre last night.

Height is not essential to mountains. Young mountains, vigorous and not worn down, do rise to the regions of perpetual snow, but there are mountains which may be said to have been subdued, that is, worn down to even slopes from their original height. Mountains are broad upheavals in which valleys have been cut by streams, and peaks result from the working together of valley sides.

The frequent slides of rock and rubbish are unmistakable signs of the slow wearing process, which often trims sharp peaks into regular slopes. Glaciers which are characteristic of these lofty mountains, wear broad basins in valleys, forcing aside mountain spurs which they cannot go around. The Alaskan glaciers show how ice-fields may enter the sea, carrying down masses of debris and rounding off rock formations in the descent. Sometimes subdued, are depressed and buried in the sea, often to a great depth.