254 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



They hooked on to it, and were towed to the north by it. Ca^Dtain 

 Duncan, master of the English whale-ship Dundee, says, at page 

 76 of his interesting little narrative:* ''December 18ih (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 through the middle of the 

 ice." And again, at page 92, etc.: ''February 23rd. Latitude 

 68° 37' north, longitude about 63° west. The dreadful appre- 

 hensions that assailed us ^^esterday by the near approach of the 

 iceberg were this day most awfully verified. About three 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 hundred j)ieces of heavy 

 ordnance fired at the same moment. The iceberg, with 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 iceberg, 



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

 the intennediate space between the berg and the vessel was 

 filled with heavy masses of ice, which, though ihej had been 

 previously 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 four knots, and b}^ its force on 

 the mass of ice was pushing the ship before it, as it appeared, to 

 inevitable destruction. Feb. 24th. The iceberg still in sight, but 

 drifting away fast to the north-east. Feb. 25th. The iceberg that 

 so lately threatened our destruction had driven completely out of 

 sight to the north-east from us." 



483. Temperature of the under current. — Kow, then, whence, 

 unless from the difi'erence of specific gravity due to sea water of 

 different degrees of saltness and temperature, can we derive a 

 motive power in the depths of the sea, with force sufficient to 

 give such tremendous masses of ice such a velocity ? What is 

 the temperature of this under current? Eodgers's observations 

 (§ 480) would seem to indicate that at the depth of 150 feet it is 

 not below 40°. Assuming the water of the surface current which 

 runs out with the ice to be all at 28°, as De Haven found it 

 (§ 479), we observe that it is nol unreasonable to suppose that 



* Arctic Regions ; Voyage to Davis' Strait, hj Dorea Duncan, Master of the 

 ship Dundee, 1826, 1827. 



