60 
ICEBERGS. 
The first that we approached was entirely inaccess- 
ible. Our commander, in whose estimates of distance 
and magnitude I have great confidence, made it nearly 
a mile in circumference. With the exception of one 
rugged corner, it was in shape a truncated wedge, and 
its surface a nearly horizontal plateau. The next pre- 
sented a well-marked characteristic, which, as I oh- 
served it afterward in other examples, enabled me to 
follow the history of the berg throughout all its changes 
of equilibrium : it was a rectilinear groove at the water- 
line, hollowed out by the action of the waves. 
These "grooves" were seen in all the bergs which 
had remained long in one position. They were some- 
times crested with fantastic serratures, and their tun- 
nel-like roofs were often pendant with icicles. On a 
grounded berg the tides may be accurately guaged by 
these lines, and, in the berg before me, a number of 
them, converging to a point not unlike the rays of a 
fan, pointed clearly to those changes of equilibrium 
which had depressed one end and elevated the other. 
A third was a monster ice mountain, at least two 
hundred feet high, irregularly polyhedral in shape, 
and its surface diversified with hill and dale. Upon 
this one we landed. I had never appreciated before 
the. glorious variety of iceberg scenery. The sea at 
the base of this berg was dashing into hollow caves 
