56 THE OCEAN 



Vessels often report bergs half a mile or 

 more in length and over three hundred feet in 

 height, but bergs of such dimensions are ex- 

 tremely rare and it is seldom that they are 

 seen with a greater altitude than two hundred 

 feet or a greater length than five hundred 

 feet. The portion above water is, however, 

 but a small portion of the entire mass of ice, 

 usually but one-eighth or one-ninth of the 

 whole berg. This does not mean that the berg 

 must be eight or nine times as deep beneath 

 the sea as the height of the visible portion 

 above it, but that the submerged weight or 

 mass must be eight or nine times as great as 

 the visible portion. 



For example a large, solid mass of ice may 

 have but a single, lofty pinnacle above the 

 sea and this may reach several times the height 

 of the submerged portion. In fact there is 

 an authentic record of an iceberg which 

 grounded in sixteen fathoms of water and 

 which bore a thin spire over one hundred feet 

 in height. 



This immense sunken part of a berg is 

 sometimes more dangerous to vessels than the 



