A Study in the Natural History of Ice 305 



the grouping of the bergs, a deep blue berg suddenly appeared 

 amongst the others. The colour was pure ultramarine, and 

 nothing white, whether as patches or layers, was visible. The 

 weather being very fine, work was continued all day in sight 

 of this beautiful and striking object which excited the admira- 

 tion and the curiosity of every one on board. When the 

 work was done the ship steamed round the blue berg and 

 found its other side white ; so that the original berg had only 

 half turned over. If, therefore, the ship had been working 

 during the whole of the day on the other side of the berg this 

 marvellous object would have been close to her without being 

 seen, and indeed without the possibility of the existence of 

 such an object being suspected. It was a piece of extra- 

 ordinary luck. None who saw the berg ever forgot it. 



To any one who is familiar with the ice conditions of the 

 Antarctic it is evident that an event of this kind must be rare. 

 As it is also very seldom that a ship finds itself in these 

 latitudes, it must be a still greater rarity for a freshly-capsized 

 iceberg to come under human eyes. 



The Mergelin See and its Icebergs. 



It would hardly be expected that anything similar could 

 occur in European, and still less in Swiss, waters. Yet, some- 

 thing perfectly similar, differing only with regard to size and 

 depth of colour, may be seen in any summer in a small but 

 famous lake in Switzerland, namely the Mergelin See, which 

 is confined in its little valley by the Aletsch glacier, which 

 closes its outlet. This glacier is continually shedding portions 

 of its substance which then float about in the lake, giving an 

 exhibition in miniature of the colossal icebergs which crowd 

 the waters of the Antarctic Ocean. 



The shore of this lake (Fig. 12) is the best place that 

 I know of for studying the natural history of glacier-ice. 

 The bergs and smaller lumps of ice which float in it may go 

 through all the possible metamorphoses of glacier-ice in the 

 course of a single midsummer day with a powerful sun. 

 I have spent many days in this study on its banks and 



