THE ARCTIC SEAS. 



53 



But though often dangerous neighbors, the bergs occasionally prove useful 

 auxiliaries to the mariner. From their greater bulk lying below the water- 

 line, they are either drifted along by the under-current against the wind, or, 

 from their vast dimensions, are not perceptibly influenced even by the strongest 

 gale, but, on the contrary, have the appearance of moving to windward, because 

 every other kind of ice is drifted rapidly past them. Thus in strong adverse 

 winds, their broad masses, fronting the storm like bulwarks, not seldom afford 

 protection to ships mooring under their lee. 



Anchoring to a berg is, however, not always unattended with danger, par- 

 ticularly when the summer is far advanced, or in a lower latitude, as all ice be- 

 comes exceedingly fragile when acted on by the sun or by a temperate atmos- 



SCALING AN ICEBERG. 



phere. The blow of an axe then sometimes suffices to rend an iceberg asunder, 

 and to bury the careless seaman beneath its ruins, or to hurl him into the yawn- 

 ing chasm. 



Thus Scoresby relates the adventure of two sailors who were attempting to 

 fix an anchor to a berg. They began to hew a hole into the ice, but scarcely 

 had the first blow been struck, when suddenly the immense mass split from top 

 to bottom and fell asunder, the two halves falling in contrary directions with a 

 prodigious crash. One of the sailors, who was possessed of great presence of 

 mind, immediately scaled the huge fragment on which he was standing, and 

 remained rocking to and fro on its summit until its equihbrium was restored ; 

 but his companion, falling between the masses, would most likely have been 

 crushed to pieces if the current caused by their motion had not swept him 

 within reach of the boat that was waiting for them. 



Frequently large pieces detach themselves spontaneously from an iceberg 



