58 
FORMATION OF ICEBERGS. 
deitz, in a jolly-boat belonging to the company, was 
fishing np the fiord, his attention was called to a large 
number of bearded seals, who were sporting about be- 
neath one of the glaciers that protruded into the bay. 
While approaching for the purpose of a shot, he heard 
a strange sound, repeated at intervals like the ticking 
of a clock, and apparently proceeding from the body 
of the ice. At the same time the seal, which the mo- 
ment before had been perfectly unconcerned, disap- 
peared entirely, and his Esquimaux attendants, prob- 
ably admonished by previous experience, insisted upon 
removing the boat to a greater distance. It was well 
they did so ; for, while gazing at the white face of 
the glacier at a distance of about a mile, a loud ex- 
plosive detonation, like the crack of a whip vastly ex- 
aggerated, reached their ears, and at the same instant, 
with reverberations like near thunder, a great mass 
fell into the sea, obscuring every thing in a cloud of 
foam and mist. 
The undulations which radiated from this great 
centre of displacement were fearful. Fortunately for 
Mr. G-rundeitz, floating bodies do not change their 
position very readily under the action of propagated 
waves, and the boat, in consequence, remained outside 
the grinding fragments ; but the commotion was in- 
tense, and the rapid succession of huge swells such as 
to make the preservation of the little party almost mi- 
raculous. 
The detached mass slowly adjusted itself after some 
minutes, but it was nearly an hour before it attained 
its equilibrium. It then floated on the sea, an ioe- 
berg.=^ 
* This title is applied by many authors to ice masses either on shore or at 
eea. I restrict it to detached ice, in contradistinction to the glacier or ice in situ. 
