Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1872-06-14
..-.u=~-eorresponasncs or the Evening Post.
Ice Floes and Ice Fields.
.YEg sbEEFFafsl-- Y al "a J@
AEroxen Stream from IsafHinss B:sy
s7esA#a to Newfoundland. 49,.
ST. JOHNS, Newfoundland, May 20

of ice. sometimes 200 miles in breadth,
have been passing these shores in almost
continuous stream. The thickness of this
fieId-ice is from twenty to thirty feet, The
distance between Baffin's Bay, where the
ice-felds are formed, and the waters OF the
Gulf Stream, where the masses are dis
solved, is from l. 800 to 1000 miles. 1t
may be affirmed without any exaggera-
ton, that river of ice, varying from % TO
200 miles in breadth, and 1900 miles IN
length has been for three months pouring
necessarily its contents into the tepld
waters of the Gulf Stream. The ter
has been fearfully severe, and the quantity
and thickness of the ice unprecedented.
The consequences to our seal fishery nave
been ruinous. During nearly the whole OF
March and part Of April northeast winds
prevailed, by which this huge stream OF ice
was DETECTED and pressed upon our shores
in a close "pack," filling every bay, harbor
and inlet with masses Of ice and complete
ly blockading the whole coast, with the
exception of few intervals, when the
west wind looSened the 'pack and drove
it out to sea. The enormous quantity CT
ice which is carried in this way from the
polar regions to warmer temperatures no
arithmetic could calculate. Some slight
idea of its extent may be formed from the
case of the Resolute, exploring ship, which
getting entangled in vast field Of ice, in
Melville's straits, was found afterwards III
Bafin's Bay, having been carried one
thousand miles from its former position.
A similar occurrence carried Captain De
Haven, of the United States Navy. anu
Captain McClintock, of the British Navy,
in mass of frozen sea-water, an equal DIS
lance south of their position.
SCENERY OF THE ICE-FIELDs.
An ice-covered ocean, such as that on
which we have been SO long gazing this
year, is generally grim and ghOstly sight;
but at times, when the stately bergs come
along in troops, their domes, spires and
turrets glittering with dazzling whiteness
in the sunbeams, and when the long swell
of the Atlantic rendS the icefield into 1ioeS,
and hurls them against each other in wild
warfare, piling the shattered fragments one
upon another, and when the icebergs sail
in and take part in the fray, then the scene
is grand and awful. Fancy two ice-hoes,
each a million tons in weight, under the
influence of opposite rOtatory motions,
rushing together in the death grapple =
The crash is awful, but the struggle is on
ly momentaTy. The weaker yields, and is
crushed beneath the waves, while the shat
tered fragments OF the victor are piled on
the back of its PROSTATE foe to the height
of forty or fifty feet or it may be a huge
berg, half a mile in circumference, snlites
with its lofty forehead a small field of ice,
and with a roar like the discharge OF n park
of artillery the foe is rent into wide fis-
srIres and split into a thousand fragments,
which strew the ocean far and wide. Think
of some unhappy ship caught in such drift
ing pack, where at any moment the meet
ing foes may grind her into atoms =
! u, Hi
ing snow-drift, hurled Oh the wigs OF
a fierce nor'easter, darkens the air. The
spray beats over the deck, freezing as it
falls, and covers everything with ice. No
situation more trying to human courage
and endurance can be imagined. Huge
| blocks Of ice are hurled as from catapult
against the ship making the masts culver
as if about to fall, and stralning every joint
till the vessel groans again. Should she
come between two meeting berGs, or q foe
and berg, instant destruction follows; for
! iron and timber could no more resist the
pressure than Wine-glass the effect of a
canOn-ban. The resOunding blows OF the
| ice-bergs, the roar of the storm overhead,
the straning Of the ships timbers-all these
make mp scene enough to appal the stout
| est lleaH. Ell 4#f
/ These are the dangers amid which our
! hardy sealers pursue their perilOus calling.
| When the storm abateS and the morning
| dawns CHASTITY scene presents itself. The
| ice is piled in " hummockS' twenty oil
| thirty feet high, under the force of the ire
mendous conclusion ridges and burrows
| Of ice, with dark lines of water between,
| everywhere meet the eye; the spray IS
! breaking in foam against the crystal walls
of the icebergs, and the waves are dashing
! through their emerald caves. The poor
al hrna hurried
deliverance from an awful death.
FORMATION OF ICE-FIELDs AND BERGs.
Whence come these immense ice-felds
that glide past our coast They are frag-
ments of the ice formed during winter on
the surface of the sea in Davis's and BAT
fms Bay. There the sea, even in deep
water, becomes frozen at the surface
Fresh water congeals at a temperature Of
81 degs. of Fahrenheit, but sea-Water must
be reduced to p degs. before it deposits its
salt and begins to freeze. When formed,
it floats like the ice of fresh water and
nearly with the same buoyancy. 1t may,
indeed, be doubted whether salt water ice
be really anything else than fresh, with a
portion of concentrated brine entangled in
its pores. Snow falling AMI floating on
water OF Is dogs. does not, of course, melt,
so that the Polar seas become coated with
tensiVe tracts. AS the sun comes north
the ice in these Polar seas break up and is
driven southwark on the Arctic current
past our shores. The icebergs, detached
from the enormous masses of ice that the
Greenland glaciers fproject in the fords
along the coast, are also carried away on
the same current. These bergs are all of
land formation. The glens and valleys Of
Greenland are filed up with solid ice, which
has been accommodating for uncOunted ages;
and from these sources the floating bergs
are supplied. Pressed forward by accunu-
lations of snow far up the gorges, these
frozen rivers project their eXtremities into
the sea. Water, freezing in their assures,
expands with irresistible force, tears off
large fragments from the outer edge, which
are precipitated into the ocean; the tides
and storms undermine their base and pro-
duce the same effect. The huge masses, |
thus dislonged, float away as icebergs. But |
the parent-glacier, nothing lessened by the |
numerous progeny which it throws off year /
after year, continues still to rear its sap |
phire battlements, every snowflake giving |
frmnesS to its walls.
PERIIS OF THE ICE-FIELDS.
The iCe-fieldS constitute one of the most |
and beautiful objects to be met
with in the world. Frequently they are
seen twenty or thirty miles in diameter,
and when closely packed they sometimes
extend to length of fifty or a hundred
miles. As general rule, their surface is
covered with snow, and when this is frozen
there is no difficulty in travelling over them.
At times large fields are met with, perfectly
level and smooth, but more frequently
their surfaces are varied with hUmmecks,
some Of which form ridges or chains, while
others consist of insulated heaps. These
hummocks often present serious difficulties
N the Way of our seal-hunters when 6rae-