The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1876-02-02

silver. standing Id splendid relief against the
intense ultra.narine of the interior walls, and
| illuminated BY the prismatic reflections of the
great stalactities depending from the vauited
roof. Again tits Gothic structure of FROST
cd silver, cut into tower and pinnacle and
buttress arched and groined and gabied, and
glittering on every projection with emerald,
ruby and sapphire glorious enough to imag-
inc when touched by the cold rays of the polar
sun, but rising before the mind in overwhelm-
ing magniticence as bathed in the ghostly
light Of an Arctic moon.
| Whence come the mighty wroks of the Ice
King, and how. are they produccds Up on
tho coast Of Greenland, washed by the waves
of Baiiin's Bay, isl great rugged indcntation
known by the name of Fiord. 1t is there the
monsters are born and nourished, and thence
they are sent out to scour the neighboring
seas. The shore Of this height is sometimes
completely blocked in by bergs. DR.. Kane,
assures Us that fl one evening he counted 240
icebcrgs of the first magnitude barricading
the inhospitable cost. e &.
Masses Of ice are generated in some frozen
inland sea, and being borne by some mysteri-
GUS current through huge canals to the shore
Of Bafin's Bay, are projected hundreds of
yards into the ocean, in the form of glaciers,
whose escapments are reared to the hight of
many hundred feet. The sca-water washing
against the bases of these glaciers, gradually
undermines them, and, in course of time,
yielding to their own gravity, large masses
fall with dreadful roar into the sea.
From this spot, in spite Of adverse wind
and tide, they are impelled by the strong
current flowing many fathoms down, far into
the desolate waste Of waters. The fall Of
these masses of ice into the sea is called the
formation Of an iceberg by de6ao,e or ava
lanche, and the spectacle it afford is truly sub
lime. DR.. Kane gives an account of such
scene witnessed by an employee of the Royal
Greenland Company.
This person, while approaching glacier for
a shot at seal which was sporting in the
water beneath, because aware of strange
sound proceeding from great mass of ice be-
fore him, which sound he describes as resemb-
ling the regular ticking Of an enormous clock.
Warned by his Esquimaux guides, he
the laboring glacier which he beheld ct
length, amid a loud detonation like the
cracking of whip vastly exaggerated"
and with reverberations like near thunder,
fall into the sea, obscuring everything in
cloud of mist. Though at such distance
from the center of displacement, the observer
found himself in extreme peril and the pre-
servation of himself and his guides from the
commotion of the sea aud the rapid success
sion of huge swells, was deemed by him to be
little less than miraculous.
After some minutes the detached mass
slowly adjusted ITSELF but it was an hour be-
fore it recovered its equilibrium and fioated
in the sea ian iceberg. Similar instances to
this are given by other travellers. In "Snow's
Journal in the Arctic Regions" we are In
formed that the writer witnessed the forma-
ton of icebergs by avalanche both in going
and returning through Baffin's Bay.