CHAPTER VIII 

 ICEBERGS 



The first iceberg was sighted on our first voyage south in the Nimrod near 

 lat. 63° 59' S., long. 179^ 47' W., on January 14, 1908. It was not until the 

 Nimrod reached the Antarctic Circle that the icebergs became actually very 

 numerous. On this occasion, January loth, the Nimrod encountered an extra- 

 ordinarily vast fleet of bergs, varying in height from about 20 to 80 feet. These 

 were met with at about 9.15 p.m., and the Nimrod continued steaming through 

 them until 3.15 P.M. on the following day. These bergs were met with in approxi- 

 mately lat. 66° 37' S. and long. 179° 36' W. It is estimated that they extended 

 for a width of about 80 miles southerly from this latitude. The measurement of 

 the belt in an east and west direction was not ascertained. The following is a 

 description of this vast fleet of bergs written at the time : — 



" Singly at first, then in groups of twos and threes, there came into view not 

 pack ice but great icebergs. These were of tabular shape and nearly all rectangular, 

 mostly from 30 to 80 feet in height. Above they showed like the purest alabaster 

 or whitest Carrara marble, shading into exquisite tints of turquoise or sapphire at 

 the water's edge, and changing to a pale emerald-green below the water. Gradually 

 as the Nimrod forged her way southwards, and the bergs increased vastly in 

 numbers, we seemed to have entered the great silent city of the Snow King, the 

 Venice of the South. With full steam and all sail we hurried along, now down the 

 wide waterways between the bergs, now along the narrow lanes, with a wall of ice 

 to starboard and a wall of ice to port. The helm had frequently to be put hard up 

 or hard down to avoid colliding with the ice. Now and again the bergs closed in 

 so closely that there seemed no way of escape for oiu- little ship, but always, just as 

 we seemed to have reached a cul de sac, a fresh lead opened to our view, and the 

 Nimrod was promptly headed into it. There was no darkness that night, and in 

 the grey light the bergs shimmered hke ghosts. As the day of the 16th wore on 

 the bergs became lower than before, rising to heights of only from 20 to 40 feet 

 above the water. Most of the bergs were tabular in shape, with flat, even tops, 

 but some, especially the larger bergs, from half a mile to two miles in length, were 

 dome-shaped, sloping gradually right down to the water's edge, or bounded seawards 

 by only very low clifls. All the bergs were formed of compressed snow or neve in 

 tlie portion visible above the water, and were regularly and perfectly stratified in 



