52 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



close beside us. The tint increased in intensity where the ice overhung the 

 water, and a deep cavern near by exhibited the solid color of the malachite min- 

 gled with the transparency of the emerald, while in strange contrast a broad 

 streak of cobalt blue ran diagonally through its body. The bewitching charac- 

 ter of the scene was heightened by a thousand little cascades which leaped into 

 the sea from these floating masses, the water being discharged from lakes of malt- 

 ed snow and ice which reposed in quietude far up in the valleys separating the 

 high icy hills of their upper surface. From other bei'gs large pieces were now 

 and then detached, plunging down into the water with deafening noise, while 

 the slow moving swell of the ocean resounded through their broken archways." 



A similar gorgeous spectacle was witnessed by Dr. Kane in Melville Bay. 

 The midnight sun came out over a great berg, kindling variously-colored fires 

 on every part of its surface, and making the ice around the ship one great re- 

 splendency of gemwork, blazing carbuncles and rubies, and molten gold. 



In the night the icebergs are readily distinguished even at a distance by 

 their natural effulgence, and in foggy weather by a peculiar blackness in the 

 atmosphere. As they are not unfrequently drifted by the Greenland stream 

 considerably to the south of Newfoundland, sometimes even as far as the for- 

 tieth or thirty-ninth degree of latitude (May, 1841, June, 1842), ships sailing 

 through the north-western Atlantic require to be always on their guard against 

 them. The ill-fated " President," one of our first ocean-steamers, which was 

 lost on its way to New York, without leaving a trace behind, is supposed to 

 have been sunk by a collision with an iceberg, and no doubt many a gallant 

 bark has either foundered in the night, or been hurled by the storm against 

 these floating rocks. 



