Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1875-04-18
lcebergs in the Atlantic.

"" iork Herdtd says: In the
chronicles OF modern navigators no record
Is 10 DC found Of such scenes in the North
Atlantic Ocean as those witnessed Inv the
passengers and crew of the Hamburo
steamship Cambria, recently arrived at
this port. lcebergs and fields of ice Of
unprecedented extent have been dis.
covered lying directly in the track of all
European vessels plying to the United
states: On the 10th of March this ves-
sci sailed from Hamburg, having on board
4S2 passengers and the German mails.
one called at Havre on the 18th. taking
| l,oo0,0O0 francs in gold from French mer
Grants. The steamship with her precious
freight turned westward. and everything
went well until the afternoon of the 18th.
when a shapeless, glistening mass was
seen rising above the horizon, little to the
southwark of the vessels course. 1t was
then three o'clock, and in moment all the
passengers rushed to the upper deck amid
cries of ''Icebergs a. ead!" Slowly the
DUN glacier doomed up before them, and
IN short time it stood directly to the
lett. 1t was an iceberg, miniature island,
diversified by curved outlines of forma-
ton and bold with edges of ragged shape.
Its height was about $50 feet, in depth
below the surface it must have been nearly
half a mile; it was 400 feeti in length, and
covered surface area of seven acres
High above the upper surface rose SOL
itary pile of the frozen mass, resembling
the ruined tower of castle on the Rhine.
Its location was in latitude As deg, 35
min. north, longitude from GreenWich)
46 deg. and q min. west. The steamer
did not venture nearer to it than three
miles. The awewith which the untutored
passengers witnessed the floating berg,
with its glistening summit and snow grit
sides, gave way to a much intenser and
less comfortable feeling not long after
ward. After the sun went down, and lust
as the moon rose, at about eight o'clock,
another represented itselfo on the bosom
ct the surrounding sea. The whole sur
face for miles ahead, and on the right
hand and on the left, was completely
covered by white field of ice, smashed
atintervals by the rising of the waves The
telescope was pointed forward, out far
away to the horizon no interruption of the
field could be discerned. In the mean
time all the passengers were on deck,
most of them not seeming to realize the
danger that was at hand. As the Cam
bria sailed On, with the helmsman eagerly
awaiting hasty commands, and the sailors
keeping sharp lookout, the scene to the
west was one of appalling grandeur
Nothing could be seen but an immense
and solid sheet of ice, whitened with
snow and frozen foam, made ghostly by
the gloomy rays of the rising moon. No
sound was audible but the thump, thump
Of the screw, the noise of the surges that
broke against the polar field, and the fire.
quent crash of the great cakes that crum
bled ever the rolling crests beneath. For
several hours the same spectacle was wit
messed, the vessel blowing southwark all
the while. No material break was OBJ
servable, and the sea lay to the southwark
as far as the eye could penetrate. At
length the commander despaired of OBJ
tanning break to the south, and, with a
startling courage, he ordered the ship to
be turned westward once again and cut
right through the ice.
The passengers remained quite COM
posed, deeming the circumstances COM
mon occurrences of ocean travel. The
heavy iron prov of the Cambria was soon
heard crashing through the cakes, which
were from two to three feet in thickness;
and this course was pursued under the
moonlight until three o'clock next morn
ing, when the blue waters once again
rose to view, and in short time the dan
| ger was over. The vessel had run sixty
miles southwark and seventy miles east
ward before she became disentangled from
the dangerous meshes of the ice snare.
Had the weather been foggy, the difficult
ties of escape would have been tenfoid
, increased.