BEAUTY OF ICEBERGS 1 4/ 



aspects of frozen water, which is found in no other natural 

 forms. Majestic as is tlu- tunuilt of Niagara, the scene inex- 

 pressibly gains in sublimit)' when winter has framed it in an 

 encasement of ice. The Alps and the Himalayas have a 

 dignity which is in but small part due to the hardy forms of 

 their rocky slopes, but is lent them by the snows of their 

 uplands and the glaciers of the valleys. Even the snow-sheets 

 of an ordinary house-roof, and the fringe of icicles pendent 

 from its eaves, may make the most commonplace building a 

 curiously impressive and pleasing object. 



There is, perhaps, no condition of frozen water in which this 

 element of the picturesque is more pronounced than where it 

 is exhibited in a fleet of icebergs within the regions where 

 they have not yet been worn out by long journeys. Those 

 who see them only in the usually traversed route between the 

 American ports and Europe behold but the scanty relics of 

 the vast structures which started from the Arctic Ocean 

 months before. The charm of these floating islands consists, 

 in part, in singularity and variety of forms, and in the beauty 

 of their coloration ; but in larger part the effect is due to 

 the weird loneliness and lifelessness of their crags and steeps. 

 Save for the splashing of the sea against their steep sides, or 

 the hoarser crash of the masses which now and then tumble 

 from the heights to the lower levels of the floating islands or 

 into the sea, we may journey for hours through the berg fleet 

 in perfect stillness. When the floating masses are near to- 

 gether, as they often are in the high north, where sometimes 

 hundreds may be seen in a day, they shut out the waves and 

 make an almost cavernous stillness in the space of water 

 between them. The impression made on the mind by a 

 strone sea breaking airainst a rock-bound shore, and that of 



