Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1885-07-31
A RIDE ON AN ICE-FL0E.

OF the AfcLlc regions ueIoIe pass W
my story about long winters ride
on huge cake of polar ice.
| expect probably few Of my read
ers will say: "never mind about the
ice. We know all about how 1t forms
here at hCme. Go on with your
story" But think short account
of the Arctic ice, SO very different
from ours or any that we ever see,
will be both interesting and profitable.
All over the fresh-w water lakes the
ice is the same as with US, but forms
six, seven and eight feet deep, instead
OF one and two, as we are used to;
and as the fall weather, when the ice
is first forming, Is a very stormy time
in the Arctic, the surface OF the ice
is rough, and this catches the
drifting winter SHOWS, until never
saw pond or lake in the polar reg
ions where one could have good
days skating.
ii is on the ocean and the shores Of
the large seas where the greatest dis
ference exists. The small channals
and inlets may freeze over like the
lakes, but on these larger ones the
water remains open even during the
very coolest winters they may have
in this very cold country. This open
water may, and nearly always does,
have a large amount of ice floating on
it, bu' Il is loose, in cakes from the
size OF wagon, and even smaller, to
great flat cakes covering three or four
blocks in your city; but all this has
not formed on the sea, but along the
shore, where it gets broken oil from
time to time by the winds, currents
and tides. The ice along the shores
may be of any width, from few
yards to few miles. The more shals
low the shores the father out IL is like
ly to extend, and if there are few
islands strung along the shore ice
will be sure to reach to them and be-
yond, even for six and eight miles.
A wind that blows from the water
toward the land for quite awhile will
soon send in all the ice cakes out to
sea, big and small, against this ice
along the shore, and then If very
cold weather sets in it will be frozen
to, and form part of, the shore of ice,
adding strip possibly mile or two
wide, which Will defy all separation
unless heavy gale from shore to sea
should break it oh-its 'hummocks"
and high projections acting like so
many sails to catch the wind-and
tear IL away, and float 1T out to sea,
when the high rolling waves will
slowly break it to pieces again, us
they did before.
Wherever the winds or currents of
the sea may carry this ice, whether it
is broken up into small pieces or big
ones, or a mixture of both, it has a
most singular way Of keeping these
little pieces or big ones together,
sometimes in solid fields covering
many square miles, sometimes III long
lines, like soldiers, not very wide,
may be hundred yards To half
mile, but many miles in length. These
pieces of ice flock together Just as you
have seen the air bubbles in a cup of
tea or coffee, either i'll the center or
around the rim of the cup; or like the
sawdust from mill that floats along
Sin strings" as the boys call it, on
the waters of the river near by. This
floating ice, wherever it is found so
thick that vessel can not easily get
through il, is called the ice-pack.
Even when open enough to- allow a
ship to keep winding through the
water between the ice cakes it is call
ed by some the ice pack, but those
who have the most to do in navigat-
ing their ships in these northern
waters only speak Of the pack when it
is close together When sailing along
in these waters your ship may sudden
ly come right against the ice pack"
and luckily enough you will be If you
only have to go a few miles to find an
opening Gases are not rare where
good ravigators have had to sail many
hundred, and even then could not get
through, although from the tops of
their mastS they could see clear blue
water beyond the narrow walls of ice
rs far rs they could see.
| have come sailing up to one Of
these 'lce>packs" during great
storm, when the big ecakes were
grinding against each other and tum>
bling over the little ones making so
much noise by their connection that
one could hardly hear the commands
given by the captain on the deck, and,
luckily, finding a way through we
sail past, and find another a mile or
SO beyond, and when we got within
or beyond it the sea would be as
quiet as mill pond, although the
gale did not cease its blowing at all,
these ice packs acting like break
waters TO prevent the heavy seas from
rolling over them. The large ice
cakes that cover many square yards,
oftentimes many square acres, are
called ice foes, though some people
l. l. L
shores the foe; sometimes, others call
ing it simply the shore ice. The
largest ice foes are those in the packs
farthest from the storm, when they
are the least liable To be broken up.
Along the outer edge of this inn
movable shore ice is where the walrus,
tlat lives IN the water most of his life,
spends his few minutes of time in The
air. II very cold, as in winter, he re
mains on theedge of the ice foe but
minute before he again plunges into
the water to warm his tough hide, but
in the pleasant sunny days of the
spring-pleasant for the Arctic,
though it may be so cold that if one
of my readers suddenly found himself
there he would probably be stamping
his feet or blowing on his fingers to
keep them warm-Mr. Walrus takes
many long nap of an hour or two
near the edge of the ice; so very near
that he has to roll only about half
way over before he splashes into the
water. Here the Esquimaux, who
live along the coast. hunt this mons
ter of the deep-for he is truly
monster, weighing nearly ton on an
average-ana the state of the ice is
very important for them if he is their
daily food. If the pack" is against
the shore ice, or in other words the
wind is toward the shore, then he
must struggle over the moving, rolling
ice>cakes of the pack" to the outer
edge of it, for the walrus is always
near the water. where he can in an
instant escape his enemies. If the
''pack" has hoated out to sea, or the
wind is blowing in that direction, then
he locks for the sea -horse--as the wal
rus is sometimes called-along the
outer edges of that ice but his chances
of seeing him have now very much
diminished, for the floating ice took
the most OF them with it to sea. and,
worst of all, if the wind is at all
strong, he does not know at what ins