PERILS DUE TO ICEBERGS 149 



and sextants the navigator can often without risk almost graze 

 these obstructions with his keel. There is no longer much to 

 be apprehended from storms ; our abler commercial ships at 

 least can make light of the winds which might have over- 

 whelmed an ancient armada. Among the first-class ocean- 

 going vessels of this day, only the armor-laden men-of-war, 

 which are indeed rather floating fortresses than ships, have 

 any serious reason to apprehend the results of a tropical 

 hurricane in the open sea. But all these conquests of the 

 modern sailor depend upon the application of skill to well- 

 ascertained facts : the difficulty with icebergs is that their 

 position in the sea, where they lie until they melt, is essen- 

 tially anomalous. 



The only information which the navigator can have as to 

 the existence of these obstacles in his path is derived in part 

 from the reports of the shipmasters who have recently trav- 

 ersed the path which he is following, and in part from the 

 conditions of the air and water about his vessel. The reports 

 of his predecessors may lead him to believe that in about a 

 certain field of the sea ice abounds. If he be a wary person — 

 and fortunately for the ocean travellers these men are care- 

 taking beyond the understanding of most landsmen — he will 

 watch the temperature of the water and attend to the condi- 

 tions of the air when he comes into the suspected district. 

 When his ship enters into a chill, foggy atmosphere, he will 

 suspect the neighborhood of ice ; if the thermometer shows 

 that the water has suddenly lowered to near the freezing- 

 point, he will know that he is very near the beres. But eood 

 as these indications are, they are not unerring. Small bergs, 

 though trifling remnants of greater masses, though they may 

 be less in bulk than the vessel itself, are sufficient to brine: 



