Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1841-06-03
From the United States Gazette.
ICEBERGS.

times objects of real danger, and always
of profound admiration. In work writ
ten by young American, who left his
studies at Harvard College, for voyage
round Cape Horn, for the recovery Of his
health and performed it in the humble
and laborlous capacity Of a common sal
Tor, we have description Of one of these
monsters Of deep, drawn with great feIlc-
ty and power. The book is entitled 1.-Two
years before the mast" 1t has been re.
published in England, and has received,
as it well deserves, high commentator
from the British reviewers, for the novelty
Of the design, the excellence Of its execu-
ton, and truth and accuracy of It's details.
One of the reviewers, after saying that its
" literary merits are great" ADDS that "it
is real, natural, and unaffected narration
of daily life at sea, and tine nautical char
acter combining in the character of its
incidents, and the Deloe.llke strength of
its descriptions, the interest Of fiction with
the sober accuracy Of positive fact"
But to return to the icebergs. give
his description Of one in his own language,
which appears to me especially striking
and fine.
"At ID o'clock we went below, and
had just got through dinner, when the
cook put his head down the scuttIe, and
told us to come on deck, and see the finest
sight that we had ever seen. where
away, cook I? asked the first man who
was up. 'On the larboard bow And
there lay floating on the Ocean, several
miles off, an immense irregular mass, its
top and points covered with snow, and its
centre of deep, indigo color. This was
an iceberg, and of The largest size, as
one of our men said, who had been in the
Northern Ocean. AS far as the eye could
reach, the sen in every direction, was of
a deep blue color; the waves running high
and fresh, and sparkling in the light and
in the midst Law this immense mountain
island, its cavities and vallies thrown into
deep shade, and its paints and pinnacles
gittering in the sun. Ill hands were soon
on deck, looking at it, and admiring, in va
rious ways, its beauty and grandeur. But
no description can give any idea of the
strangeness, splendor, and really, the SUBJ
Unity of the SIGHT. It's great sze--for it
must have been from two to three miles in
circumference, and several hundred feet
high; its slow motion, as its base rose and
sunk in the water, and its high points nod
ded against the clouds the dashing of the
waves upon it, which, breaking high with
foam, lined its base with white crust,
and the numbering sound of the cracking
of the mass, and the breaking and tumble
ing down of huge pieces together with
its nearness and approach. which added
slight element of fear; all combined TO
give it the character of true sublmity.
The main body of the mass was, as have
said, of an indigo color, its base froze with
crusted foam; and as 1t grew thin and
transparent at the edges and top, its color
shaded off from deep blue to the white
ness of snow. 1t seemed TO be drifting to.
wards the north, so that we kept away
and avoided it. 1t was in sight all the al-
ternoon and when we got to leeward Of
it, the wind died away, so that we lay TO
quite near it for a greater part of the
night. Unfortunately there was no moon,
but it was clean night, and we could
plainly mark the long, regular heaving of
the stupendous mass as It's edges moved
slowly against the stars. Several times in
our watch, loud cracks were heard, which
sounded as though they must have run
through the whole length of the iceberg,
and several pieces fell down with thun-
dering crash plunging heavily into the sea.
No pencil has ever yet gwen any thing
like the true effect of an iceberg. In
. picture, they are huge uncouth masses,
stuck in the sea while their chief beauty
and grandeur, their slow stately motion,
the whirling of the snow about their sum-
mits, and the fearful groaning and crack
ing of their parts; the picture cannot
give.-This is the large iceberg, while
the small and distant islands, floating on
the smooth sea, in the light OF a clear day,
look like little floating fairy isles of sap.
phire."