SECTION III. 1886. Fr85041 Trans. Roy. Soc. CANADA. 
VIII.—On some points in reference to Ire Phenomena. 
By ROBERT Bey, B.A.Sc., M.D., LL.D. 
. (Read May 27, 1886.) 
In the following notes it is proposed to recall a few facts in regard to ice phenomena, 
most of which must be familiar to you all, and to suggest possible explanations of some 
of these, in the hope of eliciting discussion on a subject which has not yet received the 
attention it deserves. Some of the geological aspects of these phenomena will also be 
noticed very briefly. In Canada we have the best opportunities for studying ice in all 
its aspects, as our country stretches from the comparatively mild climate of Lake Erie, in 
latitude 42°, to the North Pole, and from the ice-laden North Atlantic on the east, to the 
warm Pacific on the west. We have every possible condition for the natural display of 
the phenomena connected with the freezing of water in brooks, and in rivers of the first 
magnitude, in temperate and in high northern latitudes, in ponds and in lakes of 
unrivalled extent, on bold and on shallow sea coasts of immense length, on level lands 
and high mountains; in fact, no other country of the world offers such opportunities 
for studying this subject. 
JcEBERGS.—During the last two summers, the writer, while accompanying the 
Government expeditions to Hudson Strait, made by the S.S. “ Neptune ” and “ Alert, ” 
enjoyed excellent opportunities for observing icebergs, which, for weeks, were the most 
common objects to be seen from the vessels. Off Labrabor, a stream of bergs, several 
hundred miles wide and about two thousand miles long, comes constantly southward. 
These floating islands of ice are more abundant at some seasons than at others, but they 
are never absent. Upwards of one hundred may often be counted from a ship’s deck at 
the same time. When we consider the mass of each of these innumerable bergs and the 
constancy with which they come floating on, we must be struck with the almost incon- 
ceivable amount of ice which is every year brought to the edge of the Gulf Stream. 
What becomes of this enormous quantity of ice? Most seamen will tell you it sinks on 
striking the warm waters. This, of course, is impossible; but the rapid disappearance of 
the bergs after reaching the Banks of Newfoundland does not seem to have been fully 
accounted for. Up to this time, they do not appear to have undergone any marked 
alteration or rapid reduction in size in the course of their voyage southward. When one 
happens to become stranded on the coast of Labrador or Newfoundland, it will remain for 
months, even under the summer sun, with but little diminution in bulk, until some day, 
it starts off again with a high tide, and a strong wind favouring its departure. 
The temperature of the interior of icebergs is probably a good deal below 32° Fah. 
While forming parts of glaciers in the Arctic regions, they have remained for ages at the 
