The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-05-21 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY

FIELDS OF ICE IN THE
ATLANTIC.

The following letter, which ,xlll be found very interesting,
was given to us by the commander of the Great Western, on
board that vessel --

" Great Western Steam Ship,
Bristol Channel, May 14, 1841

" Sir,—Under the impression that ice, to the extent it has
been seen this year, has never before been heard of in these
latitudes, I give the following particulars for the information
of your readers :—On Sunday, April 18, the ship steering
west, at six p.m., first saw one iceberg on the starboard
bows, at 7 30 passed it; at that time four or five others in
sight; at 9 15 passed several small pieces of ice—slowed the
engines. In a few minutes after the ship was surrounded
by light field ice, which appeared similar to a field. I ran
through on the 11th February, 1839; this induced me to go
slowly, with the hopes of getting through as I had done on
that occasion ; but by 9 30, finding it became closely packed
and much thicker, prudence dictated our escape by the same
channel we had entered. I then stopped, and attempted
to get the ship's head to the eastward by turning a-head and
astern until there was room for her to come round ; in the
course of this operation the ship had occasionally (at least)
two strokes heel given by either wheel passing over large
masses of ice. At 10 15 succeeding in getting the ship's head
to the eastward, and by 11 entirely clear, from that time went
slowly, passing several icebergs ' • the night at times was very
clear, the aurora borealis very bright. At 330 a.m. of the
11th, again got embayed in the ice, stopped, hauled short
round on our keel, and steered out E by S, coasting the ice
for 5 or 6 miles; 4 20, kept her to the westward running
through innumerable icebergs until 830, when we passed the
last iceberg and point of the field ice.
" When the sun arose the ice was visible as far as the eye
could reach in an unbroken line from NE to E by the north-
ward to NW by W., at the same time icebergs innumerable
in every direction, forming one of the most magnificent sights
I ever beheld. •
" The first iceberg we saw was in lat. 43, long. 48.30, and
this last in lat. 42.20, long. 50.0. lam quite sure there was
an unbroken field of that extent, and from what I heard from
Captain Bailly, of the American packet ship United States,
I have no doubt the field ice extended, with very little breaks,
to lat. 40.30, where Captain Bailly fell in with it on the morn-
ing,
of the 18th.
" Several other ships also fell in with it in the same longi-
tude, and were completely stopped, giving them an opportu-
nity of killing seals, which were on it in great numbers.
" Some of the icebergs I estimate a little (if at all) less than
a mile long. and from 150 to 200 feet high ' • this field of ice
was in large masses, some of them not less than 20 feet
square by 6 feet thick or more.
" The temperature of the water, when within two miles of
the first iceberg seen, fell suddenly from 30 degrees to 36 de-
grees • air, 40 degrees to 36 degrees.
" When in the ice the water was 25 degrees, air, 28 de-
grees ; during the remainder of the night and following
morning the water was not higher than 30 degrees, nor the
air higher than 32 degrees.
" Immediately after passing the last ice the water became
36 degrees, and the air 42 degrees.
" I am, Sir, &c.,
"JAMES HOSKEN, Captain."

Dora, the only daughter of Wordsworth, the poet, wat
married last week, at Bath, to Mr. Edward Quillman, of
Canterbury. The venerable poet has for some time pass
been residing at Bath, principally for the benefit of his health.
ALARMING INCIDENT.—The celebrated revivalist,Mr.
Burns, has again visited Perth, and preached three times
here on Sunday last—twice in Kinnoull-street church during_
the day, and once in St. Leonard's in the evening. His
audiences were, of course, densely crowded. In the former
place of worship, the vestry, which opens into the church
was packed almost to suffocation. Mr. Burns himself had
just merged from " this black hole of Calcutta," and was
proceeding towards the pulpit, when the joisting which sup-
ported the floor gave way, and the inmates were precipitated
into the cellar below. The scene there baffles description,
but it was feared by many that it would have been produc-
tive of much more terrible and fatal results in the body of
the church. The screaming and cries from below led the
people in the gallery especially, to fancy that the church, or
part of it at least, was falling, and an awful commotion
arose everywhere. The preacher, however, hurriedly as-
cended the pulpit stairs, succeeded in obtaining a hearing,
and persuading the congregation that there was no danger
whatever, just when they were about to make the rush which
in similar cases has proved so fatal. Fortunately no serious
injury was sustained by anybody.—Perth Contitutional.

TOWN COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS.