Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-08-06
A RIDE ON AN ICE-FLGE.

n OAN t4N AuA@
1t may be interesting to my many
readers to know little something
about the ice, ice cakes and icesfoe s
of the Arctic regions before pass to
my story about long winters ride
on huge cake of polar ice.
I expect probably few of nay read
ers will say: never mind about the
ice. We know all about how it forms
here at home. 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-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 very stormy time
an the Arctic, the surface of the ice
lis rough, and this catches the
drifting winter SHOWS, until never
saw pond or lake in the polar reg
ions where one could have a good
days skating
It is on the ocean and the shores of
She large seas where the greatest dif~
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
ia this very cold country This open
water may, and nearly always does,
have large amount Of ice floating on
it, but it is loose, in cakes from the
size of a wagon, and even smaller, to
great fiat 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 off from
time to time by the winds, currents
and tides. The ice along the shores
may be Of any width, from a few
yards to few miles. The more shal~
low the shores the father out il is like
~ to extend, and If there are a few
islands strung along the shore ice
will be sure to reach to them and be-
yond, even for six and eight miles.
q 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 1t will be frozen
to, and form part of, the shore of ice,
aAGding q strip possibly mile or two
Wide, which will defy all separation
unless u heavy gale from shore to sea
should break it off-its ''hummocks"
and high projections acting like SO
many sails to catch the wind-and
tear it away, and float it out to sea,
when the &high-rolling waves will
slowly break it to pieces again, as
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
ittle pieces or big ones together,
sometimes in solid fields covering
many square miles, sometimes la long
lines, like soldiers, not very wide,
May be a hundred yards to half a
mile, but many miles In length. These
pieces of ice flock together just as you
have seen the air bubbles In q cup of
tea or coffee, either In the center or
around the rim of the cup; or like the
sawdust from mill that floats along
t'in strings" as the boys call it, on
She waters of the river near by. This
floating ice, wherever it is found SO
thick that vessel can no! easily get
through it, is called the ice>pack.
Even when open enough to allow a
ship to keep winding through the
water between the ice cakes 1t 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
iEclose together. When sailing along
in these waters your ship may sudden
ly come right against the ''ice pack, !"
and lucky enough you Will be If you
only have to GO few miles to IND an
opening. Cases are not rare where
good navigators 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 as they could see-
I have come sailing up to one Of
these ''ice>packs" during great
storm, when the big ice-cakes 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 mile or
SO beyond, and when we got within
or beyond it the sea would be as
quiet as a milI-pond, although the
gale did not cease its blowing at al,
these packs acting like break
waters to prevent the heavy seas from
rolling over them. The large ice
cakes that cover many square yards,