The New York herald., 1879-11-14

Ing to the lcebergS wnlcn lnIeSC tne weSsein
basin of the North Atlantic. There is
probably no track of any ocean largely fire.
quented by ships that exposes them to
peril from ice so much as the peninsula
shaped sea of cold water south of Newfound-
land. AS the Gulf Stream nears the Grand
Banks it makes what Lieutenant Maury
called the .'Great 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
meridian free outlet for its surplus ices,
which, after they emerge from the South
Polar circle, form an almost uninterrupted
belt about the sixtieth parallel OF south
latitude. But the North Polar Ocean. hav-
ing no outlet at Behring Strait Through the
narrows of which no iceberg can make
its way against the infowing warm
currently. and the sea between Green
land and Norway being mostly occupied by
southerly currents. the only great gateway
through which it can discharge 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 explor-
ing ship Resolute, abandoned by Kellett
and foated through Bafin's Bay to the
southwark, was computed by Herschel and
others to cover three hundred thousand
square miles, and Scoresby measured ice
bergs in tho Greenland seas weighing as
many tons.
1t is remarkable that the icebergs of the
entire Arctic Basin which find their way
to Newfoundland should all make for the
"Great Bend" off the Grand Banks. where
the Gulf Stream turns sharply to the north
east. The prevailing winds are westerly,
and would, we're there no counteracting
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 earth's diurnal rotation and the
underfow of the Arctic current, acting on
the largest or the 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 its transatlantic routes.
1t is claimed by some apologists for the
Arizona's collision that the Newfoundland
icebergs are rarely met with except in
spring. But Maury states that the cold
current from Davis Strait Gin late sum-
mer and autumn brings down o large num-
ber." Certain tits that with probably 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 Febru-
ary and was never heard from. it is thought
by many perished in the ice. But what is
of greater import, it appears from we'll
authenticated data that in some years the
ice drift from the Polar seas is so abnor-
mally greet as to falsify the calculations of
the oldest and most experienced seamen.
Thus in 1860 Sir Leopold McClintock
found that unusually great quantities of
icebergs had accumulated on the Greenland
coasts ''to ON extent not previously known
for about thirty-six years." fact which
Admiral Fitzroy explained by the abnormal
ing years, and, of course, in tho frst
warm season that succeeded these tower
ing formations were launched upon the
Arctic current that descends to Newfound-
land. Similarly. in 1869, from the Ant
arctic Basin, there was an abnormal dis
charge of icebergs into the ship tracks of
the Southern Ocean in quantities and of
dimensions greater than had ever before
been recorded by the British Admiralty.
It is possible that the present month and
the early spring of 1880 will prove as memo
rable 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 full,
the great anxiety of the skilful navigator
is, as Fitzroy says, to keep ga vigilant look
out" for ice. This is no less true in
the foggy nights Of our Northern winter
of the Grand Banks. It is said that
icebergs ut the distance of several miles
can be detected by their depressing effect
on the sea temperature, sometimes amount
ing to ten degrees of the thermometer. But,
valuable as instrumental indications surely
are, the chief dependence must ever be
upon the ''vigilant lookout" If tho steam
ship companies will risk the dangers of the
Grand Banks rather than lose little time.
their captains should, at least, be required
to be on deck the little while their vessels
are running the great ice gantlet ut night.
Wall street Booms.
The activity of speculation in stocks and
advance of prices within the last two days
is repetition of what has already occurred
this autumn and is likely to occur perpetu-
ally at short intervals, until Congress gives
the country some legislation calculated to
insure greater stability of values. We have