ICE. 59 



drive it in a solid mass upon the Newfonndland coast, filling Notre 

 Dame, Bonavista, and Trinitj^ bays so that no water can be seen ; west- 

 erly winds, especially southwesterly, serving to disperse it, a single 

 night of the latter wind often emptying the bays and carrying the 

 stream out of sight to seaward. Between the end of March and the 

 middle of April during ordinary years the ice swings off to the east- 

 ward, owing to the failure of accessions from the north and the in- 

 creasing prevalence of westerly winds. After this date strings of 

 field ice may at times be seen making their way down the coast, occa- 

 sionally in May and rarely in June. These, however, are for the most 

 part derived from Trinity bay and Bonavista bay, and are not part 

 of the regular northern stream. 



The drift of the ice southward from the Arctic has been traced by 

 actual experience. On October 14, 1871, Captain Tyson and a party 

 of nineteen others were separated from the U. S. S. Polaris in latitude 

 77° or 78° north, just south of Littleton island. Unable to regain 

 their ship, the whole party remained on the floe and accomplished one 

 of the most wonderful journej^s on record. After a drift of over 1,500 

 miles, fraught with danger and privation, they were finally rescued 

 April 30, 1872, by the sealing steamer Tigress, near the strait of 

 Belleisle, in latitude 53° 35' north, and carried safely into port. No 

 better example than this could be given of the drift from the Arctic 

 basin, illustrating, as it does, not onlj'' the journey to the southward, 

 but also the many vicissitudes to which the ice is subjected before 

 reaching a low latitude. 



The fields of ice encountered to the eastward of the Great bank 

 are generally detached masses, due either to a temporary diversion 

 of the stream or to the separation of fields of limited area from the 

 main body, the primary cause in both cases being the prevalence of 

 heavy westerly gales. During February these detached fields are 

 reported most frequently nprth of the 45th parallel, and between the 

 meridians of 46° and 49°. The quantity of this early ice depends, 

 to a large extent, upon the character of the early winter months 

 in the higher latitudes in which the slob is formed. If November 

 and December are mild, the quantity will be slight ; the quantity of 

 ])ergs, or true Greenland ice, reported during the following spring 

 and summer is, on the other hand, quite independent of the severity 

 of the winter. 



The destruction or wasting away of the slob and field ice in short 

 periods is very remarkable ; and it appears to melt away very rapidly 

 after April. A vessel may be beset in the evening, and by morning 

 all the ice will have disappeared. The ice in strings forms an excel- 

 lent shelter for vessels hove to in a gale, and is constantly used for 

 this purpose, but these breakwaters may be crushed up and destroyed 

 in a single night. 



