UPSET OP AN ICEBERG. 153 



dermined and honeycombed, or "rotten," as the 

 sailors call it. It always seems to decay fastest 

 "between wind and water, 1 ' so that enormous cav- 

 erns get excavated in the sides of the bergs. 



Nothing can exceed the beauty of these crystal 

 vaults, which sometimes appear of a deep ultrama- 

 rine blue, and at others of an emerald green color ; 

 they look as if they were the fitting abodes of mer- 

 maids and all sorts of sea-monsters, but practically 

 no animal ever goes into them. The water dash- 

 ing in and out through these icy caves and tunnels 

 makes a sonorous but rather monotonous and mel- 

 ancholy sound. In moderately calm weather, many 

 of these excavated bergs assume the form of gi- 

 gantic mushrooms, and all sorts of other fantastic 

 shapes ; but directly a breeze of wind comes, they 

 break up into little pieces with great rapidity. 



Christian and myself very nearly got a danger- 

 ous ducking yesterday from the sudden break-up of 

 a large iceberg on which we were standing to look 

 out with the telescopes. A large piece of it sud- 

 denly, and without the least warning, became de- 

 tached under water, and the berg, in consequence, 

 losing its equilibrium, began to rock so violently 

 that we had some difficulty in scrambling down 

 again to the boat. Immediately after we had got 

 off it, the berg capsized altogether with a tremen- 

 dous noise and splash, breaking up into half a dozen 

 pieces as it did so. 



August 1st. Although still bright and warm, I 



