Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-12-17
A TAR'S TALK ON ICE.
THE OLD SALT SPINS SOME YARNS
 OF MlD-OCEAN DANGERS.

A Monster BerG, Sixty Miles Wide, With Bay in Its Center-A Cake That Was Ten Thousand Feet from Top to Bottom.
 Out on one of the long docks, just below Wall street ferry, heavily bearded rather well-to-do looking man stood looking up into the rigging of big American ship. That he knew what be was looking at was as eyi- dent as was the fact that he wanted some body to talk to, and it only required pleas ant salutation to get on speaking terms with him.
 He was an old sailor, having, as be said, "crawled in the hawsepipe and come out at the cabin windows" which being translated means that he had worked himself up from before the mast to the masters berth. He was on old time American master.
 Ut wasn't so strange to see an American flag at lofty gaff in those days" said he. We had the finest and fastest ships in the world, and when a lime juicer Sailor for EngLshman) saw cotton canvas on royal yard he knew that it wasn't any use trying to catch that bloody Yankee as they al- ways called ship from the States"
 HE sNIFFED THE AIR.
 Just then the old sailor sniffed rather eagerly in the rather damp misty air The
 
 Hunters Point aroma that haunts the river, but the sailor had caught a whiff of some thing else.
 Do you know," said he, q thought I smelled an iceberg just then. At sea ill high attitudes you can smell them miles away, and many night have kept all hands on deck smiling and peering around on the watch for field ice or bergs. I tell you it is no fun to have half dozen icebergs loafng around when your ship is logging nine or ten knots straight off the reel and you are in such a hurry to make a passage that you don't want to shorten sail"
 The scent had awakened a train of mem ory, and, seating himself on one of the dock piles, he took large sized chew of plug and settled himself. to talk about field ice and bergs.
 Il was for nearly twenty years master of deep sea ship" began the old shellback, land have doubled both Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope more times than I have fingers twice over. That's where you see ice. The bergs down there are not so lofty or so beau- tiful as those in Arctic regions but they are much more dangerous; first, because of their number and extent, and again because they have submarine formations that are just like ledge of rocks and project sometimes half mile or mile out from the base of the
 
 think you were giving them all the berth they needed and still break your ship up on one of their reefs.
 MONSTER ICEBERG.
 'The biggest ice island l eveE heard told of by sailors was seen drifting around in about B $. and 24 w., almost in the track of the English Liverpool boats bound to Melbourne It was in 1853 that it was first sighted, and the same chunk Of ice was reported from that vicinity until 1855, when it disappeared It was said to have been about $50 feet high, GO miles long and 40 miles wide, and was curved into very much the shape of horseshoe. The two arms of the curves embraced O bay forty miles across and perfectly sheltered. A big English emigrant ship, called the Guiding Star, l think sighted the ice island, but whether because of fog or carelessness, nobody knows, sailed slap into the bay be- tween the arms of the island and was lost with all hands. Pieces of her wreckage were picked up near the island by steamer bound for Australia.
 ''The highest berg ever heard of was seen in the Southern ocean, where they are not generally very lofty. 1 sailed with Q man who declared that he had seen this berg and i that it was thousand feet high above the surface of the water. Now as there is always nine times as much of berg below the
 
 fellow 5000 feet from the base under water to the highest point above. That's pretty big chunk of ice, considering that it is over fifty times as high as the Brooklyn bridge I'll bet it made splash when it fell That's where the danger is. In warm attitudes the base melts away and tho first thing you know it falls over. l have heard of several ships that had big chunks fall on their decks, one vessel having her masts carried away and several of her crew killed. "Northern bergs are neither so large nor so numerous as those seen in southern waters, but they are usually loftier and more beauti- full, with lots of spires and domes, and when the sun shines on them they look like lot of rainbows piled on top of each other These fellows are tall and draw lot of water. l have heard of them grounded on the banks of Newfoundland, where there was over 600 feet of water by the lead. They have been reported ill Baffin's bay hard aground in l 1,500 feet of water."-New York Mail and 1 Express.
 Looking Down from High Places. | A determined faced, fine looking man was | looking up where thirteen story building seems to pierce the clouds. After standing and staring for some minutes he turned to the l +ba i,, T