Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-06-28
ICEBERGS.
Difference Between Arctic and Anarc.
tic BergS-Ships and Crews Seen
on Their SummitS-Acres of
Land Carried Off.
The Wonders of Even Our Own World
Are Worthy of Study.

Bergs have been seen in the North At
Iantic laden with Jumps of rock, sand
and soil. The banks of New Foundland
! would appear to have been formed in this
way. Arctic lands suffer denudation by
the inland ice as it crseps along toward
the see, and the bergs separated from
| their parent glaciers, deposit the frag-
meuts at the bottom of the old ocean ;
there to harden into rocks and help in
| molding the surface of the globe. Moth
| ing is lost, nothing is new. In August.
1927, a berg was observed stranded in
| eightyfve fathoms in 46115 deg. north, As
deg. west. Much earth and rock were
imbedded in its fssUred sides. Polar bears
and other Arctic animals were seen on the
bergs of 1888. An abandoned ship was
passed high and dry on huge ice island
in 1894, and ship with her crew was
seen similarly situated in 1915, but no
help could be afforded.
On the 21st of April, 1851, the brig
Renovation passed an immense ice is
land, about ninety miles to the eastward
of st. Johns, Newfoundland. Two dis
mantled ships lay snHgly upon 1t, but
| there was no sign of life. Captain ON
manney, R. N, was deputed to investi-
gate this report, and took great pains to
arrive at It's truth, as it was inferred that
these ships were the Erabus and Terror,
of Sir John Franklin's i'll fated expedi-
ton. Some people are still of the same
way of thinking. The crew of the Ger
man discovery ship Hansa were COM
PEELED to abandon their vessel, crushed by
ice, and took refuge on an immense
floating mass Of ice, where they remained
for eight months. Their floating ice
island was seven miles in circumference,
and drifted south. Qntil the poor fellows
were able to make their escape. During
this time they had lived in a hut con
strueted from the coal saved from their
ship. Fl. M. S. Resolute was abandoned
imbedded in the ice, but was picked up
after long drift to the southwark. This
current tends to make the
American coast very cold. The warmer
water Of the Gulf stream, on the other
hand, enables the whalers 10 get far TO
the northward, on this side of the Allan
tic, and makes the mean temperature of
Ireland in flfty-two degrees north as high
as that of American coast ports in
thirsy-sight degrees north, fourteen de-
grees nearer TO the equator.
Many losses and casualties were caused
by the ice in the Northern Atlantic last
season. Masters should take frequent
observations of the temperature of the
sea, although it must not be relied upon
as a specific Indication. Warning may
often be obtained by means OF the echo
given off from a berg when steam wills
tie is sounded. No precaution must be
neglected by those VINO navigate our
floating palaces and ocean tramps; but
Rhae ,aIo 7S To nAn cnT1fh o~lry
route clear of bergs. The Etruria has
followed this course in her fastest pas
sages. Our admiralty charts show the
seasonal limits of bergs, and the United
States Photographed Office issue charts
every month giving the exact position of
each berg up to the moment of going to
press. Notices of bergs passed at sea
should be forwarded Immediately on
arrival to Washington, and every berg
reported will receive due publicity.
There exists marked difference in
form between the bergs of the two hemis-
pheres. Arctic bergs are of irregular
shape, with lofty piEnacles, Handicapped
towers and glittering domes; whe1 cas- the
Southern bergs are fiat-topped and solid
looking. The former reach the sea by
narrow for6s, but the formation of the
latter is more regular. It is we'll to give
these splendid specimens of Natures
handiwork wide berth, for they frequent
ly turn somsrsaults, owing TO the wasting
away of their immersed portions. I'm
mense pieces of Ice fell from berg on
to the deck of ship that had approached
too close to IL while in this transitory
state, carrying away her masts and
manning some of the crew. Again, ships
have been sunk by colliding with the
submerged portions of bergs extending
from their visible volume, like reefs of
rocks from a bold sea coast. Hayes COM
pared one that he saw TO the Colossus of
Rhodes. His ship could have sailed IN
der the arch of ice formed in the heart
of the berg.
North Atlantic bergs are neither so
large nor so numerous as those met with
in tho Southern Ocean, between the
Falkland Islands and the Cape of Good
Hope. In 1854 an enormous ice island
was drifting in about AZ degrees south,
"a degrees west, for several months, and
was passed by many ships. 1t was 800
feet high, 60 miles long, and 40 miles
wide, and was in shape like a horseshoe.
Its two sides inclosed a sheltered bay
measuring 40 miles across. A large emil
grant ship, the Guiding Star, sailed into
this ice bay and was lost with all hands.
A similar, but smaller, mass of ice was
met with North Atlantic by the Agra.
She ran into ba, formed in the center
of an iceberg, in 40 degrees north, which
was u miles across, and she experienced
great difficulty in beating out again.
A cubic foot of ice weighs about $50
ounces. but the same volume of sea water
weighs 1880 ounces. Hence ice floats on
water, and but one-ninth of Inc volume
of berg is exposed to view. There are
several we'll authenticated instances of
bergs 1000 feet high having been sighted
in the Southern Ocean, SO this would give
the total height of them as about 5000
feet.