680 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



was at once made in the minds of every one present, and the ice- 

 berg was named " The Hand of Providence." 



The pack ice of one winter's growth is met and fought by the 

 whalers on both sides of the continent, until, with the assistance 

 of the summer sun, it is conquered, and no longer forms an obsta- 

 cle to progress northward. 



Hayes states that the formation of new ice in Foulk Fiord dur- 

 ing one winter in still water was thirteen feet thick. It is highly 

 improbable that any additions at that depth would be made dur- 

 ing even extraordinary cold periods ; it has since been surmised by 

 experienced arctic travelers that a portion of this thickness was 

 due to snow deposits. Ordinarily, this ice will not be found 

 thicker than seven feet. Early in summer it breaks up and floats 

 away in immense floes as pack ice ; sometimes, through pressure, 

 becoming hummocked or piled in thicknesses of three or four fold 

 into the size of small bergs or crushed into fragments, until it 

 finally melts out of sight away to the southward. This ice can 

 be distinguished, even when hummocked, from that formed by 

 broken-up bergs by its opaque- white color, due to the presence of 

 innumerable air-cells, its method of formation rendering it softer 

 and more porous than glacier ice, which is subjected to years of 

 pressure and concentration through infiltrating streams of freez- 

 ing water. 



Before the immense floes are broken up, however, they are ex- 

 tremely dangerous in the confined Greenland waters, where they 

 are continually subjected to terrible pressures by the winds and 

 surface currents. The eastern whalers, through superior equip- 

 ment and working in company, escape many of the disasters of 

 the Americans in the Pacific, while their proximity to land or fast 

 ice and numerous villages of Eskimos gives them strong hopes 

 of rescue, even though their vessel may be lost. After arriving 

 at their station they have little to fear but floating bergs and 

 hummocks, their powerful steamers crushing the then rotten floe 

 ice with ease. As the whales leave the vicinity of Pond's Inlet 

 early in the summer, the whalers strive to get there as quickly as 

 possible ; a large reward being often given by the owners to the 

 crew of the vessel first reaching that point. They can afford this, 

 as her cargo may consist largely of whalebone collected by the 

 Eskimos in the vicinity. These men are, in consequence, the 

 best ice-navigators in the world. 



Our own American whalers have no such incentive ; they are 

 no less hardy or brave than any seamen in the world. Their life 

 is a hard one ; in case of disaster, there is no such way of escape 

 as that open to the Scotchmen in the east ; and yet it would be 

 comparatively easy to establish a life-saving station on the north 

 coast of Alaska, which would repay perhaps more than any other 



