AND TRANSPORTING AGENT PREST. 341 



I think that a great mistake is made in making no allowance 

 for the melting of drift ice by water and air during its 1000 or 

 2000 miles journey to the temperate zone. When we reflect 

 that icebergs 300 feet in height are common in the Arctic 

 regions, and that very few of these are seen off the Newfound- 

 land and Labrador coasts, the waste must be enormous. Many 

 thousand tons of ice from the exterior of the bergs, containing, 

 of course, the greater part of the debris, have been dissolved by 

 air and water or have been washed away by the waves and surf 

 of these stormy seas near their starting point. Icebergs, of 

 which I saw several hundred from 40 to 200 feet high, were 

 washed as clean as surf and melting water could wash them 

 Overturned bergs showed the same cleanly condition. Icebergs 

 excavated to a dept of 100 feet by wave-washed caverns showed 

 the purest and most beautiful blue, untinged by the slightest 

 impurity. This melting process which is done chiefly by the 

 sea, is so rapid at the water's edge that before they reach the 

 Straits of Belle Isle many of the smaller bergs assume the form 

 of gigantic umbrellas and finally topple over. These ice 

 umbrellas, by the way, are one of the most fantastic sights of 

 the northern seas. Often the caps are 30 to 60 feet in diameter 

 with a stem 3 to 6 feet thick, and 5 to 15 feet high. They do 

 not appear to be always perfectly poised, but the immense weight 

 of the lower portion keeps the upper part erect. And this ice 

 is always free from impurities. 



In regard to field or pan ice, I have examined it from high 

 hills with a powerful glass, and have chopped my way through 

 it in an open boat, but have very seldom seen a discoloured pan. 



The only ice-borne debris worthy of mention is that frozen 

 to the bottom of field or pan ice while grounded on shoals at 

 low tide. Sand or mud is frozen to the bottom; then at high 

 tide this is covered by a layer of pure ice, which process is often 

 repeated. Though the probabilities are that nearly all shoal- 

 water ice from the far north will be inter-stratified with debris 

 yet the fact is that an exceedingly small part of what came 

 under my observation was thus stratified. Though watching 



