244 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



the deptlis of the ocean, ripping and tearing their way with terrific 

 force and awful violence tlirough the surface ice or against a surface 

 current, on their way into the polar basin. 



482. Passed Midshipman S. P. Griffin, who commanded the brig 

 Icebergs drifting Kescuo in the American searching expedition after 

 ^°^^^' Sir John Franklin, informs me that, on one occasion/ 

 the two vessels were endeavouring, when in Baffin's Bay, to warp 

 up to the northward against a strong surface current, which of 

 course was setting to the south ; and that, while so engaged, an ice- 

 berg, with its top many feet above the water, came " drifting up " 

 from the south, and passed by them " like a shot." Although they 

 were stemming a sm-face cmTent against both the berg and them- 

 selves, such was the force and velocity of the under current that 

 it carried the berg to the northward faster than the crew could warp 

 the vessel against a surface but counter cm-rent. They hooked on 

 to it, and were towed to the north by it. Captain Dimcan, master 

 of the English whale-ship Dundee, says, at page 76 of his interest- 

 ing little narrative:* "December ISth (1826). It was awful to 

 behold the immense icebergs working their way to the north-east 

 from us, and not one drop of water to be seen ; they were working 

 themselves right tlirough the middle of the ice." And again, at 

 page 92, etc. : '' Fehruarij 2Srd. Latitude 68° 37' north, longi- 

 tude about 63° west. The dreadful apprehensions that assailed us 

 yesterday by the near approach of the iceberg were this day most 

 awfully verified. About tliree p.m. the iceberg came in contact 

 with our floe, and in less than one minute it broke the ice ; we were 

 frozen in quite close to the shore ; the floe was shivered to pieces 

 for several miles, causing an explosion like an earthquake, or one 

 hundi'ed pieces of heavy ordnance fired at the same moment. The 

 iceberg, mth awful but majestic grandeur (in height and dimensions- 

 resembling a vast mountain), came almost up to our stern, and 

 every one expected it would have run over the ship The ice- 

 berg, as before observed, came up very near to the stem of the ship ; 

 the intermediate space between the berg and the vessel was filled 

 with heavy masses of ice, which, though they had been j^reviously 

 broken by the immense weight of the berg, were again formed 

 into a compact body by its pressure. The berg was drifting at 

 the rate of about fom* knots, and by its force on the mass of ice 

 was pushing the ship before it, as it appeared, to inevitable de- 



* Arstic Eep;ion3 ; Voyage to Davis' Strait, by Dorea Duncan, Master of the 

 ship Dundee, 182G, 1827. 



