26o DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN chap. 



loose far north on the west coast of Greenland would float 

 towards the south along the coasts of Labrador and Newfound- 

 land, and even farther south, thus proving the existence of the 

 Labrador Current. An iceberg lies deep in the water, a fraction 

 only of its bulk rising into the air, so that the wind will have 

 little influence on its motion, which will practically express the 

 aggregate effect of the currents through which the foot of the 

 iceberg stretches. 



It has occurred more than once that vessels have been 

 locked up in the ice east of Greenland, and have been carried 



Fig. 175. — Drift of Wreckage in the North Atlantic. (After Kriimmel.) 



along with the drifting ice far towards the south. In the year 

 1777 a number of whalers were caught in the ice north of Jan 

 Mayen, and all their efforts to free themselves were in vain, 

 many of the ships being crushed, while most of the men 

 perished; when the last ship was lost it had drifted iioo 

 nautical miles in 107 days, or an average of 10 miles per day. 

 On the second German Arctic Expedition one of the ships, the 

 " Hansa," was locked up in the ice in lat. 74° 6' N. and long. 

 i6j^ W. on the 6th September 1869, and was carried southwards 

 until it was crushed on the 19th October. The crew took 

 refuge on an ice-floe, and drifted on till the 7th May 1870, 

 when they were able to land in Greenland in lat. 61° 12' N. 



