306 J. Milne — Ice and Ice- work in Newfoundland. 



outlines, were by no means of such varied forms as many that were 

 seen afterwards. Several apparently very small pieces, projecting 

 perhaps not more than a foot out of water, when approached showed 

 themselves as considerable masses, their magnitude being hidden by 

 their submergence. In the "offing" "islands of ice," as the bergs 

 are here called, were to be seen moving southwards, whilst in the 

 bay several of them were always to be seen aground. These latter, 

 as they slowly rose and fell with the ever-varying swell caused by 

 the wind and tide, were deranging and grinding away the beds on 

 which they rested. The enormous power that one of these islands 

 of ice must possess to do such work may faintly be conceived by 

 approaching one of them in a boat, and then considering that, 

 although there is a mountain above water, there is from seven 

 to nine times its mass beneath the surface. The depth of water in 

 which one of these ponderous masses of ice can ground may often 

 be more limited than has generally been expressed. When the berg 

 first leaves its parent the glacier, its sides may be more or less 

 parallel to each other, and we may sometimes get a near approach 

 to a prismatic form. In this case not only would there be about 

 eight times the bulk of ice beneath the water as there is above, but 

 also there will be about eight times the depth, and we might 

 conceive, as Jukes and Geikie tell us in their " Geology" (p. 416), 

 that if the mass rises " 300 feet above the waves," we may imagine 

 that it " has its bottom 2,400 feet below them." In the Arctic and 

 Antarctic regions we may therefore understand the immense depths 

 at which an iceberg can ground, and there disturb the strata. As 

 bergs travel towards lower latitudes, as towards Newfoundland, 

 what with the beating of the waves and the changing of temper- 

 ature they of necessity lose a great deal of the regularity of character 

 they may previously have possessed. The greatest loss appears to 

 be upon the portion exposed to the atmosphere, but, perhaps, more 

 noticeable " between wind and waters." 



As this waste goes on, the berg must rise, and the ratio of the 

 height of the exposed portion to the depth of that which is hidden 

 grows greater. The result of this is that the exposed portion be- 

 comes less and less in diameter than that which is protected beneath 

 the surface of the water, which at last may be looked upon as a kind 

 of foot or pedestal. 



That bergs, instead of descending in parallel sides beneath the 

 surface of the water, rather extend outwards in the form of a broad 

 base, depends on the assumption that the disintegration is carried on 

 at a greater rate above water than below. 



Apart from these theoretical considerations, it would seem from 

 actual observations, that although icebergs have occasionally been 

 seen in low latitudes to ground in deep water, as mentioned by 

 De la Beche in his " Geological Observer," where one is recorded as 

 being stranded in 720 feet of water on the Banks of Newfoundland, 

 the bulk of them is only to be seen upon the shoals. In fact the 

 grounding of icebergs is used by both the fishermen of Newfound- 

 land and Labrador as a means of finding out shallows which may be 

 used as fishing-grounds. 



