116 THE ICE AGE IN NORTH AMERICA. 



was doing, the island, which was not less than half a mile in 

 circuit, and three or four hundred feet high above the surface 



Fig. 38.— Iceberg. 



of the sea, turned nearly bottom up. Its height, by this 

 circumstance, was neither increased nor diminished appar- 

 ently. . . . 



In the evening we had three islands of ice in sight, all of 

 them large ; especially one, which was larger than any we had 

 yet seen. The side opposed to us seemed to be a mile in ex- 

 tent ; if so, it could not be less than three in circuit. As we 

 passed it in the night, a continual cracking was heard, occa- 

 sioned, no doubt, by pieces breaking from it. For, on the 

 morning of the 6th, the sea, for some distance round it, was 

 covered with large and small pieces ; and the island itself did 

 not appear so large as it had done the evening before. It 

 could not be less than one hundred feet high ; yet such was 

 the impetuous force and height of the waves which were 

 broken against it, by meeting with such a sadden resistance, 

 that they rose considerably higher.* 



For a series of years the Board of Trade in England col- 

 lected statistics from the navigators of the Southern Ocean 

 who reported icebergs encountered in their voyages. From 



* " Voyage round the World," pp. 20, 29, 48-50, 54. 



