May 14, I860.] VIA THE FAROES, ICELAND, AND GREENLAND. 105 



very tliick ; and if it were, tlie cable could not be injured by it. The 

 west coast in Julianshaab district is settled by some 3000 Esquimaux 

 and Danes. Their bouses are to be found on many of the hills, and 

 the skin boats are to be seen at nearly all times in some of the bays. 

 The floe ice runs northward a few miles from the coast during the 

 months that it is seen on the east coast. Between the green hills 

 and the floe the sea is open and free from ice, except, perhaps, here 

 and there a berg may be seen. Icebergs from Baffin Bay, or the 

 various "blinks" more northward, will be found scattered along 

 the coast. Some ground on the reefs or shoals, some are blown into 

 the bays, and others pass off to the south. Those blown into many 

 of the bays seldom, if ever, get out. If the bays have currents from 

 the interior, they are taken out to sea ; but if their waters be quiet, 

 as many of them are, the bergs are blown to the land and ground. 

 There they remain until the winds, the sun, and the tidal waves 

 crumble them to pieces. Between the Arctic current and the coast 

 many of the icebergs remain for weeks, and, in fact, until broken to 

 pieces and melted. The largest iceberg may be some eighty feet 

 above water ; but as to their depth in the water, no one knows, nor 

 is it possible to ascertain. The theory as to the specific gravity of 

 ice cannot be applied to determine the depth of any given berg. 

 The ice above water may be the cone ascending from a very 

 broad base. In most cases very high bergs are very wide below 

 water, and when the base becomes reduced the berg falls, and a new 

 projection is seen from the water. The crumbling of bergs, and the 

 changing of their positions, are to be seen going on at nearly all 

 times. A rough sea soon exposes the form and size of the berg, and 

 a careful judgment can determine the probable bulk. The bergs on 

 the Labrador coast are of the same kind as those on the Greenland 

 coast. They go south in great quantities until checked by the eddy 

 currents on the east coast of Newfoundland. Many of them enter 

 the bays of Newfoundland, and a cable laid therein will be more 

 liable to be injured by the ice than those laid on the Greenland or 

 Labrador coasts. 



The North Atlantic Telegraph is an enterprise practically com- 

 plete in all its parts, so far as pertains to demonstrated philosophy. 

 In its construction and subsequent operation there will be nothing 

 to discover, nothing to invent ; but we have only to follow the 

 sciences and arts as effective, at this time, in commercial telegraphy, 

 and our efforts will be crowned with a success that will add new 

 glory to the age in which we live. 



The President said the first paper propounded a very ingenious theory, upon 

 wliicli, as it involved many complicated scientific questions, he would not 



