50 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



rude estimate of its size, made on the spot, gave in cubical contents about 27,000 

 millions of feet, and in weight something like 2000 millions of tons ! 



Captain Ross in his first voyage mentions another of these wrecked bergs, 

 which was found to be 4169 yards long, 3689 yards broad, and 51 feet high 

 above the level of the sea. It was aground in 61 fathoms, and its weight was 

 estimated by an officer of the "Alexander" at 1,292,397,673 tons. On ascend- 

 ing the flat top of this iceberg, it was found occupied by a huge white bear, 

 who justly deeming " discretion the best part of valor," sprang into the sea be-= 

 fore he could be fired at. 



The vast dimensions of the icebergs appear less astonishing when we con- 

 sider that many of the glaciers or ice-rivers from which they are dislodged are 

 equal in size or volume to the largest streams of continental Europe. 



Thus one of the eight glaciers existing in the district of Omenak, in Green- 

 land, is no less than an English mile broad, and forms an ice-wall rising 160 

 feet above the sea. Further to the north, Melville Bay and Whale Sound are 

 the seat of vast ice-rivers. Here Tyndall glacier forms a coast-line of ice over 

 two miles long, almost burying its face in the sea, and carrying the eye along a 

 broad and winding valley, up steps of ice of giant height, until at length the 

 slope loses itself in the unknown ice-desert beyond. But grand above all is the 

 magnificent Humboldt glacier, which, connecting Greenland and Washington 

 Land, forms a solid glassy wall 300 feet above the water-level, with an unknown 

 depth below it, while its curved face extends full sixty miles in length from 

 Cape Agassiz to Cape Forbes. In the temperate zone it would be one of the 

 mightiest rivers of the earth ; here, in the frozen solitudes of the North, it slow- 

 ly drops its vast fragments into the waters, making the solitudes around re-echo 

 with their fall. 



As the Polar shores of continental America and Siberia are generally flat, 

 and below the snow-line, they are consequently deprived both of glaciers and 

 of the huge floating masses to which these give birth. 



In a high sea the waves beat against an iceberg as against a rock ; and in 

 calm weather where there is a swell, the noise made by their rising and falling 

 is tremendous. Their usual form is that of a high vertical wall, gradually 

 sloping down to the opposite side, which is very low ; but frequently they ex- 

 hibit the most fantastic shapes, particularly after they have been a long time 

 exposed to the corroding power of the waves, or of warm rains pelting them 

 from above. 



A number of icebergs floating in the sea is one of the most magnificent 

 spectacles of nature, but the wonderful beauty of these crystal cliffs never ap- 

 pears to greater advantage than when clothed by the midnight sun with all the 

 splendid colors of twilight. 



" The bergs," says Dr. Hayes, describing one of these enchanting nights, 

 " had wholly lost their chilly aspect, and glittering in the blaze of the brilliant 

 heavens, seemed in the distance like masses of burnished metal or solid flame. 

 Nearer at hand they were huge blocks of Parian marble inlaid with mammoth 

 gems of pearl and opal. One in particular exhibited the perfection of the 

 grand. Its form was not unlike that of the Colosseum, and it lay so far away 



