The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1879-12-19
North Atlantic Icebergs.

not be an unmixed evil if.it serve to open
up and settle some of the questions rela-
tive to the icebergs which infest the
western basin of the North Atlantic.
There is probably no track of any ocean
largely frequented by ships that exposes
them to peril from ice so much as the
peninsula shaped sea of cold water south
of Newfoundland. As the Gulf Stream
nears the Grand Banks it makes what
Lieutenant Maury called the ssGreat
Bend, into which, as grand iceberg
harbor," the glacial drift of the whole
Arctic Ocean pours its chilling volumes.
The Antarctic Ocean has at every meridi-
an free outlet for Its surplus ices,
which, after they emerge from the South
Polar circle, form an almost uninter-
rupted belt about the sixtieth parallel of
south latitude. But the North Polar
ocean, having no outlet at Behring Strait
Through the narrows of which no ice
berg can make its way against the inflow
ing warm CURRENT and the sea between
Greenland and Norway being mostly oc-
cupied by southerly currents, the only
great gateway through which it can dis
charge its frozen masses is Davis Strait.
No body of water on the globe of like
size yet discovered can compare with this
for the volumes of ice which it transports
to low latitudes. The single ice drift
which bore the old exploring ship Reso-
lutte, abandoned by Kellett and foated
through Bafin's Bay to the southwark,
was computed by Herschel and others to
cover 300, 900 square miles, and Scoresby
measured icebergs in the Greenland seas
weighing as many tons.
It is remarkable that the icebergs of
i, Il ~, Co. h.,
way to Newfoundland should all make for
the ''Great Bend" off the Great Banks,
where the Gulf Stream turns sharply to
the northeast. The prevailing winds are
westerly, and would, were there no coun-
teracting force, drive the ice to the east.
So would the Gulf Stream there tend to
distribute them over the eastern Atlantic.
But the force of the earths diurnal rota-
ton and the underfow of the arctic cur
rent, acting on the largest or submerged
part OF the berg, press it to the westward
and carry it into the ''Great Bend"
through which the navigation of the
world continues to this day to select it's
transatlantic routes.
1t is claimed by some apologists for the
Arizona's collision that the Newfound-
land icebergs are rarely met with except
in spring. But Maury states that the
cold current from Davis Strait 'sin late
summer and autumn brings down large
number Certain it is that, with prob
ably the exception of the three winter
months, ship is at no time secure from
the rude encounter with such an obstacle
as met the Guion steamer. The ill-fated
City of Boston, which some years ago
left Halifax in the last week in February
and was never heard from, it is thought
1,xy el -
is of greater import, it appears from well
authenticated data that in some years the
ice-drift from the polar seas is so abnor-
mally great as to falsify the calculations
of the oldest and most experienced sea-
men. Thus, in 1860, Sir Leopold Nc
Clintock found that unusually great
quantities of icebergs had accumulated
on the Greenland coast ''to an extent not
previously known for about thirty six
years" fact which Admiral Fitzroy ex-
planned by the abnormal heats which pre-
vailed in the two preceding years; and,
of course, in the first warm season that
succeeded, these towering formations
were launched upon the Arctic current
that descends to Newfoundland. SINH
larly, in 1869, from the Antarctic basin,
there was an abnormal discharge of ice
bergs into the ship tracks of the South
ern Ocean in quantities and of dimen-
sions greater than had ever before been
recorded by the British Admiralty. Tt is
possible that the present month and the
early spring of 1880 Will prove as mem
orable for icebergs in the Atlantic as the
summer of 1869 was in the South Indian
Ocean.
In the long dark nights of an antarctic
winter, when the moon is not near the
fr711 f1,o nf o1- f,,1,
igatOr is, as FitZrOy says, to keep "a Wig
liant lookout for ice" This is no less
true in the foggy nights of our northern
winter off the Grand Banks. It is said
that icebergs at the distance of several
miles can be detected by their depressing
effect on the sea temperature, sometimes
amounting to ten degrees of the ther-
mometer. But, valuable as instrumental
indications surely are, the chief depend
ence must ever be upon the "vigilant
lookout" II the steamship companies
will risk the dangers of the Great Banks
rather than lose little time, their cap
tains should, at least, be required to be
on deck the little while their vessels are
running the great ice gauntlet at night.
-Ne,c York Herald.
The AUTHOR OF ''KIsMEr. The news
that Miss Fletcher, the daughter OF an
American missionary, granddaughter of
a Genevan preacher and author of
'sKismet,' D is to marry Lord Wentworth,
the grandson of Byron, is somewhat eur
prising. Lord Wentworth has always
been strange man. During the life of
his father, when he wore by courtesy the
title of Viscount Ockham, he became es-
tranged from his family and labored for
a al as
man. He married and had children, but
the union was unhappy; his wife was
beautiful, scandal arose and divorce
ensued. Ralph Gordon Noel Mill lbanke,
the second son of Lady Loyelace (s.Ada,
sole daughter of my house and heart is
now 40 years old; it is interesting to note
that his title of Baron Wentworth de-
ives from Charles !. Is earl of Strafford.
6Y and by there was q sort of BYronic