Morris tribune., 1880-09-02
About Icebergs.

4 New York paper says: Vessels sail
ing hence from Europe, particularly the
regular steamers, have encountered an
extraordinary number of icebergs this
season, and been exposed to great danger
therefrom. Many icebergs are produced
from glaciers, which are thrust down
from the higher lands Of the polar regions
and pushed forward to the sea, where
vast fragments break OF and float away.
The edges OF glaciers extending for miles
along precipitous coast have been seen
TO tall into tie ocean and thus become
iceDergs, often carrying with them mass
es of rock gathered up by the advance of
the glacier. Enormous bergs are some
times formed by the breaking up of vast
fields of sea made ice which accumulate
along the shores OF far northern waters.
IN 1917, the ice covering several thou
sand square miles of the sea north of Ice
land, and mainly on the east coast OF
Greenland, most of which had not, it is
thought, been disturbed for nearly four
centuries, was suddenly dislOdged and
scattered over the North Atlantic. Por-
tions were earned far beyond the usual
eastern range of icebergs from the north,
approaching within eight hundred miles
Of Ireland. This great breakup led to
the expedition ofadmlraI (SIr john Ross
in search of the northwest passage, the
belief then being that the climate had
undergone SO great modification as
would insure the continual openness of
the nothern seas. Northern icebergs dr1ft
with great polar currents. One of these
sets in south-south-wes direc-
ton, between Iceland and Greenland, and
another along the west side of Baffin's
Bay, near the coast of Labrador. The
bergs are brought against this continent
and the west shores of its bays from their
not catching immenlately the rapider ro-
tating motion of the earth as they pass
upon larger parallels, and 30 permit the
motion to slip from under them. The
majority of icebergs form on the west
of CIR. enland, their most remarkable
center being at Jacobs light, an inlet a
| little north of Disco Island. From Lab
rador the ice floats with the current past
Newfoundland, meeting near the Great
Bank the warm influence of the Cult
Stream, and usually disappearing about
LotAluuC AOlty~GWO uCSLCCS1 CuS cAIItuuc
limit being forty degrees. In the
southern hemisphere bergs go still
nearer the equator, being visible occasion
ally eff the Cape Of Good Hope, In lati-
tude thirty-six degrees. They senslbly
cool the wa.ers Tor forty to fifty miles,
and the thermometer on approaching
them falls seventeen or eighteen degrees
When driven, az they sometimes are, into
Hudson's bay in large numbers, they
cause intense cold over the northern part
of the continent. Ice is always found
even in summer, at the mouth of Hayes
river, though this is in the latitude Of
Northern Prussia. When the ce is
spread out into sheets of hundreds Of
miles extent, and rises only a few feet
above the water, it is called field, an6
when its entire area can be defined from
the st-head it is named a foe. The
bergs are rugged and picturesque, ano
are sometimes seen moving together In
great numbers. DIR. Kane counted on
his first cruise $50 in sight at the sam,
time, most of them $50 feet high, ant
some 800 feet. They are generally sever
or eight times further below than above
the surface, and the biggest are measured
by miles.