ICEBERGS IN NAVIGATION — BARNES. 719 



bergs, and it influences tlie entire eastern coast of Canada. In spite 

 of all this there has been little study of this current. Wliy, naay we 

 ask, have the Governments of the world neglected to obtain scientific 

 data, and why have they neglected to supply a thorough hydrographic 

 survey of this region ? I trust this state of affairs may be soon 

 rectified . 



DANGER FROM ICEBERGS. 



To tlie navigator the presence of ice is a constant menace. Its 

 movement, often fairly rapid by wind and current, makes its position 

 always uncertain. A ship may see immense fields of ice, which 

 another passing over the same locality a few days afterward may 

 never encounter. Only those who have stood on the bridge of an 

 Atlantic liner with the officers on a dark night in the ice track can 

 appreciate the anxiety of those tireless men, who know that collision 

 with even a small floating ice mass means damage to the ship. The 

 small masses called growlers are often of great danger. They 

 float low in the water, and leave little above to be seen by the look- 

 out. The Arctic ice is of great solidity and is of irregular shape. 

 It presents frequently sharp edges which can cut the plates of a ship, 

 shear off' rivets, or drive a hole through the bottom as readily as a 

 steel knife. The game of chance is played by every big ship that 

 speeds through the ice track at night or in a fog. 



FIELD ICE AND ITS DISTRIBUTION IN THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE 



DURING THE WINTER. 



Icebergs arc not alone in causing an obstruction to navigation in 

 the Labrador current. Field ice, which may extend over wide areas, 

 presents great difficulties. This ice is salt water frozen in the bays 

 and inlets along the sliore, as especially in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

 Immense fields are formed of pieces blown by tlie wind and massed 

 together in an irregular way. Change of wind and tide causes the 

 fields to float away. When several fields are blown shoreward 

 togetlicr they grind and crush together, forming irregular ice many 

 feet thick. Frost and spray soon cements this together into a hard 

 mass, almost impossible to break. Floating again, these agglom- 

 erated ice masses, often many miles in extent, are carried out to sea, 

 there to produce great danger to navigation. While the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence never freezes over entirely, there are to be found all winter 

 floatmg areas, which take up their position with the du'cction of the 

 wind. As the spring advances these fields become weaker, and 

 finally disappear. The la»st to open is the Strait of Belle Isle, where 

 toward the end of June it becomes sufficiently free for ships to 

 navigate. 



