Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-08-19
Arctic Ice.

Ice, as it appears at sea, is of very
different sorts, and presents obstacles of
very different natures and Of very different
| degrees of impermeability. There is,
first of all, ice as it appears actually form
ing on the surface of the water, and which
is frequently spoken OF as bay ice; this
does not offer any serious difficulty to a
stout ship, the weight of which can crush
| through and the strength of which can re-
sist. So far as is yet known, ice of this
nature disappears with the winter; an ex-
tended sea, simply and permanently
frozen over, has not yet been met with
Such ice is thus commonly enough called
first-year ice; and we may understand
thai, so far as our present experience goes.
| firstyear ice is not considered impossible,
| though it may be difficult.
But it is very seldom that ice is allowed
| to remain in this condition; the swell of
the sea, transmitted sometimes through a
| great distance, or, still more, the rise and
| fall of the tide, break it up even as it
| forms; the pressure of the fragments, one
| against another, lifts them, losses them,
piles one over another until they become
| heavy, solid, irregular masses, which are
called foes, and great number of foes
driven together by wind, tide, or current
constitutes pack. Pack, then, may be of
very different degrees is of light, OF COM
paratively light, ice, loosely drifted to-
gether; stout ship may pass through it,
+I,o to -
by strongly-defended bow; but if the
foes are very heavy, and by the wind or
tide current are pressed against a line of
coast or into a narrow channel, there they
| freeze together, and that with a solidity
which no ship that has hitherto crossed
the arctic circle can break through.
| Icebergs are necessary to complete the
| ideal picture Of an arctic sea; but, strange
as it may sound to many, icebergs are not
| sea ice. An iceberg is the lower end of a
glacier which, forced by the downward
| flow into the sea, is broken off by its I'M
| supported weight, or torn off by the up
ward pressure Of the water, and so floats
| away Such masses of ice are often as is
we'll known, of prodigious size; the
weathering of the upper part forms them
into fantastic shapes resembling spires and
arches and things beautiful or grOtesQue
below the surface of the sea they extend
a long way. Ice, it will be remembered,
! floats with about severe ghths of its volume
submerged; and a huge hill of ice, such as
an iceberg is, draws a great deal of water
so much so that they are frequently to be
seen grounded IN seventy, eighty or even
| 100 fathoms, That is to say, in from 400 to
600 feet. 1t is by SO grounding that they
seriously impede navigation; if several
large bergs ground near each other they
constitute a nucleus round which drift-ice
forms pack ofthe worst kind. 1t was in
such pack that the Fox was caught in
1857, and held fast by it for eight months,
while it drifted down Bafin's Bay and
through Davis Straits for distance of
nearly 1900 miles,
| Pack ice, then, in its different forms, is
the one distinct impossible hindrance to
navig alton First-year ice, or loose drift,
can, as a rule, be got through; icebergs
can be evaded but heavy pack, closely
pressed together, is as unyielding as the
solid rock and is more dangerous, as be-
ing itself in motion. Now the nature of
the pack depends, in a great measure, on
the conditions or circumstances of its
formation as such; that is, on the shape of
the land against which it is pressed, and
on its relation to the prevailing winds,
the currents, or the set Of the tides; and
the persistency of the pack in different
places as found by repeated experience in
former Arctic voyages has been in many
instances satisfactorily explained by refer
ence to one or the other of these causes
| Edinburgh Re0ieao.