ICE-FIELDS ICEBERGS. 



surface of from 100 to 200 hundred square yards. These being 

 dispersed, are carried in various directions by currents, and 

 sometimes by the effect of intersecting currents they are brought 

 into collision 'with a fearful crash. A ship, which might chance 

 in such a case to be found between them could no more resist their 

 force than could a glass vessel the effect of a cannon ball. Terrible 

 disasters occur from time to time from this cause. It is by the 

 effects of these currents upon the floating masses of broken ice 

 that these seas are opened to the polar navigators. It is thus that 

 whalers are enabled to reach the parallels from 70 to 80, which are 

 the favourite resort of those monsters of the deep which they pursue. 



42. Sometimes after such collisions new icebergs arise from the 

 fragments which are heaped one upon another, " Pelion on Ossa," 

 more stupendous still than those which have been broken. In such 

 cases the masses which result assume forms infinitely various, 

 rising often to an elevation of thirty to fifty feet above the surface 

 of the water; and since the weight of ice is about four-fifths 

 of the weight of its own bulk of water, it follows that the 

 magnitude of these masses submerged is four times as great as 

 that which is above the surface. The total height of these floating 

 icebergs, therefore, including the part submerged, must be from 

 150 to 250 feet. 



43. It happens sometimes that two such icebergs resting on the 

 extremities of a fragment of ice 100 or 120 feet in length, keep it 

 sunk at a certain depth below the surface of the water. A vessel 

 in such cases may sail between the icebergs and over the sunken 

 ice ; but such a course is attended with the greatest danger, for if 

 any accidental cause should detach either of the icebergs which 

 keep down the intermediate mass while the ship is passing, the 

 latter by its buoyancy will rise above the surface, and will throw 

 up the ship with irresistible force. 



44. Icebergs are observed in Baffin's Bay of much greater magni- 

 tude than off the coast of Greenland. They rise there frequently 

 to the height of 100 to 130 feet above the surface, and their total 

 height, including the part immersed, must therefore amount to 

 500 or 650 feet. These masses appear generally of a beautiful 

 blue colour, and having all the transparency of crystals. During 

 the summer months, when the sun in these high latitudes never 

 sets, a superficial fusion is produced, which causes immense 

 cascades, which, descending from their summit and increasing in 

 volume as they descend, are precipitated into the sea in parabolic 

 curves. Sometimes, on the approach of the cold season, these 

 liquid arches are seized and solidified by the intensity of the cold 

 without losing their form, and seem as if caught in their flight 

 between the brink from which they were projected and the surface, 



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