ICEBERGS AND FOG IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC. 631 



" Steamer ' India ' (Ger.) : May 24th, passed two icebergs during a dense fog" 

 Slowed engines until next morning, when fog lifted and found vessel surrounded 

 by icebergs ; counted thirty-five of them. The fog shut down again, and was 

 obliged to stop vessel several times. At 10 a. m. struck an iceberg and stove 

 two holes in starboard bow. The last ice was seen in latitude 42 35', longitude 

 52, when three bergs were passed." Ibid., May 31st. 



" Steamer ' America ' (Ger.), . . . was detained on the Banks and vicinity 

 many hours by fog. June 10th, latitude 42 30', longitude 50 3G', passed 

 through a regular fleet of icebergs, one of them at least three hundred feet 

 high; . . . weather thick and foggy, and was obliged' to proceed slowly." 

 Ibid., June 14th. 



" Steamer ' State of Nebraska ' (Br.) was detained thirty hours on the Banks 

 by dense fog." 



"Steamer ' Devonia ' (Br.) was detained eighteen hours by dense fog." 

 Ibid., July 19th. 



"Steamer 'Polaria' (Ger.) had strong westerly gales and high head-seas 

 with dense fog nearly all the passage." Ibid., July 20th. 



"Steamer ' Devon *' (Br.) sighted a large iceberg on the eastern edge of the 

 banks ; thence light winds and fog." Ibid., July 23d. 



" ' Abyssinia ' left Liverpool June 3d : June 11th, light wind and dense fog, 

 passed several icebergs, engines slowed and stopped ; 12th, light winds and dense 

 fog, passed several icebergs ; 13th, light southeast winds and fog, passed several 

 icebergs, engines slowed." New York Maritime Register, June 21st. 



The above are only a few of the many instances of steamers en- 

 countering fog and ice during the last season, and sustaining more or 

 less damage. It is difficult which to most admire, the skill and sea- 

 manship exercised in extricating some of these vessels from difficult 

 and dangerous situations, or the pertinacity with which they continued, 

 month after month, to follow the same track in the face of the reports 

 published day after day in the " Herald " and " Maritime Register," 

 with hardly any intermission, from March to August. It may be re- 

 plied that the last spring and summer have been exceptional ones for 

 ice, which is doubtless true ; but, since 18T5, including that year eight 

 seasons, we have had, for the first year, ice down very early ; field-ice 

 and bergs were seen in February, and continued into September and 

 October. For 1876, bergs and field-ice seen in the early part of the 

 year, February ; and in August, September, and October an immense 

 number of bergs on the Banks and to the northward of them. During 

 the three following years, very few seen ; only occasional bergs, includ- 

 ing the one seen by the Arizona in November, 1879. In the season 

 of 1880 there was a constant stream of icebergs along the eastern edge 

 of the Grand Bank from March until July, some of them having been 

 seen as far south as 40 latitude. In 1881, occasional bergs ; and the 

 ice and fog of the last season are too recent to have been as yet for- 

 gotten. Here we have, out of eight seasons, four in which ice was 

 almost certain to be encountered from two to six months in each 

 spring and summer. In those seasons during wdiich very little ice 



