CHAPTER IX. 



FORMATION OF ICE DANGERS OF DISRUPTING ICE ANECDOTE 



DRIFTING ICE DRIFT OF THE "FOX" " NIPPING "ANECDOTE 



LOSS OF THE " BREADALBANE." 



IT is well known that when fresh water be- 

 comes so cold that its temperature is 32 

 of Fahrenheit's scale, it loses its liquid 

 form and becomes ice. A somewhat lower tem- 

 perature than this is necessary to freeze salt water; 

 the reason being, that greater force is required to 

 expel the salt which the sea holds in solution, 

 which salt is always more or less expelled in the 

 process of freezing. 



Ice commences to form in the shape of needles, 

 which shoot out at angles from each other. In 

 smooth water, under the influence of intense cold, the 

 process is rapid, and a thin cake soon covers the 

 water, and increases in thickness hour by hour. 

 But when the sea is agitated the process is retarded, 

 and the fine needles are broken up into what arctic 

 navigators call sludge. This, however, soon begins 

 to cake, and is broken by the swell into small cakes; 



