74 OLD WHALING DAYS. 



our boats inshore on the south side of Home Bay, and saw 

 several, then bore up for Cape Hooper. 



A very large iceberg once lay off here and remained 

 three years. It was four and a half miles in circumference, 

 and was called by the sailors Ross's Berg. Captain Ross, 

 in his first voyage, mentions this berg, which was found 

 to be 4,169 yards long, 3689 yards broad, and 51 feet 

 high above the level of the sea. It was aground in 61 

 fathoms, and its weight was estimated by an officer of the 

 Alexander at 1,292,397,673 tons. On ascending the flat 

 top of this iceberg it was found occupied by a huge white 

 bear, who, justly deeming discretion the better part of 

 valour, sprang into the sea before he could be fired at. 



Dr. Hayes measured an iceberg to the north of Melville 

 Bay. The square wall which faced towards his base of 

 measurement was 315 feet high, and a fraction over three 

 quarters of a mile long. Being almost square-sided above 

 the sea, the same shape must have extended beneath it ; and 

 since, by measurements made two days before, Hayes had 

 discovered that fresh water ice floating in salt water has 

 above the surface to below it the proportion of one to seven, 

 this crystallised mountain must have gone aground in a 

 depth of nearly half a mile. A rude estimate of its size, 

 made on the spot, gave in cubical contents about 27,000 

 millions of feet, and in weight something like 2,000 millions 

 of tons. 



The vast dimensions of the icebergs appear less 

 astonishing when we consider that many of the glaciers 

 or ice-rivers from which they are dislodged are equal in 

 size or volume to the largest streams of continental Europe. 



Thus one of the eight glaciers existing in the district 

 of Omenak, in Greenland, is no less than an English mile 

 broad, and forms an ice-wall rising 169 feet above the sea. 

 Further to the north of Melville Bay and Whale Sound are 

 the seat of vast ice-rivers. Here Tyndall Glacier forms a 



