CHAPTER IV 



BLOCKED BY THE PACK ICE 



On the evening of the 8th in latitude 63 30' we saw our first 

 icebergs. We were just starting dinner when news was 

 brought, and the soup looked tempting. So many times had 

 " Wolf" been cried, that not a man moved ! However, later 

 some of us climbed the main rigging and far away in the east 

 we could see two silvery pyramids glistening in the setting 

 sun. Not even a fortnight's blockade in the pack has damped 

 our admiration of the icebergs, and I shall have much to say 

 of their striking beauty. 



Early on the 9th of December we entered the zone of 

 pack ice. On the horizon was an enormous fragment of the 

 Great Barrier, probably three miles long, and one of the 

 largest ever seen by those on board who knew these regions 

 well. It was a tilted berg, so that the upper surface sloped 

 considerably to the north. Most of these bergs float off from 

 the Barrier in the shape of huge bricks. In this form they 

 are known as tabular bergs. It often happens that large 

 fragments of the lower surface break away, and in that case 

 there is a readjustment of the flotation line, and the berg tilts 

 over — as in the tilted example just quoted. Often the old 

 flotation line is exposed on the side of these bergs as a furrow 

 or line of caves cut by the waves. Still other bergs exhibit 

 pinnacles and hummocks. It may be that these have actually 

 turned turtle, or possibly they may be from shore glaciers, 

 which have received ice debris from overhanging cliffs. 

 Another group exhibit a broad domed surface sloping gradu- 

 ally from the centre. These are particularly difficult to 

 explain, for neither the barrier nor the glaciers exhibit a 

 surface of this nature, and it is difficult to see how it could 

 have arisen after the berg left the parent body of ice. They 

 may represent the large undulations seen in glacier tongues, 



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