lit 12] on Icebergs and their Location in Navigation. .')25 



scientific data, and why have they neij^lected to supply a thorough 

 hydrographic survey of this region ? I trust this state of aifairs 

 may be soon rectified. 



Danger from Icebergs. 



To the 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 afterwards 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 

 api)reciate 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 "• groivlers'" are often of great danger. They 

 float low in the vvater, 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 througli the ice-track at night or in a fog. 



Field-Ice and its Distribution in the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence during the Winter. 



Icebergs are 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 shore, as especially in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

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

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

 fields to float away. When several fields are blown shore wards 

 together 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 agglomerated 

 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 floating 

 areas, which take up their position with the direction of the wind. 

 As the spring advances these fields become weaker, and finally dis- 

 appear. The last to open is the Straits of Belle Isle, where towards 

 the end of June it becomes sufficiently free for ships to navigate. 



Limits of Region-^of Icebergs.' 



It has been found that in April, May and June are^the greatest 

 number of icebergs. They have been seen as far south as the 39th 

 degree of latitude, and as far east as longitude 38° 30'. In general, 



