The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-08-19
Arctic lee.

Ice, as it appears at sea, is of very
different sorts, and presents obstacles OF
very different natures and of very different
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
| frst-year ice; and we may understand
that, so far as our present experience goes.
| tirst-year 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, NAV be of
very different degrees; is of light, or com
paratively light, ice, loosely drifted to-
gethcr; a stout ship may pass through it,
| forcing the foes to one side or the other
by strongly,defended bow; but, if the
floes 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.
lcebergs are necessary to complete the
deal picture of an arctic sea; but, strange
as 1t may sound to many, icebergs are not
sea ice. An iceberg is the lower end of
glacier which, forced by the downward
flow into the sea, is broken off by its un-
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
well 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
long way. Ice, it will be remembered,
floats with about seven eighths of its volume
submerged; and huge hill of ice, such as
an iceberg is, draws great deal of water;
so much so that they are frequently to be
seen grounded in seventy, eighty or even
100 tathoms, 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 nucleus round which drift-ice
collects, piles up, freezes together, and
forms pack ofthe worst kind. 1t was in
such a pack that the Fox was caught in
1857, and held fast by it for eight months,
while it drifted down Baffin's Bay and
through Davis Straits for distance of
nearly ZOO miles.
Pack ice, then, in its different forms, is
the one distinct impossible hindrance to
navigation. First-year ice, or loose drift,
can, as 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 WINS,
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 |
satisfactorily explained by refer
ence to one or the other of these causes
ReUSeac.