Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-07

under the water against our ships side, az
if submarine blast had been exploded,
and moment afterward huge rising OF
the sea near one side of the iceberg was aB-
parent, and through this vast lake of up
lifted waters broke snow-white mass OF Ice
that had been detached from the huge crystal
mountain far down in the oceans depths,
aud that came whirling to the surface with
a swIftness that seemed to lift it half way
out of the sea, and which kept it spinning
and splashing ior full i've minutes after
ward.
The release of this portion from its frozen
letters far below had disturbed the stable
equilibrium of the greater and parent berg,
and a moment aiterward it began its stu
pendous swaying, as if some earthquake
were influencing it from beneath, until in
one of its colossal careenings il fell over ard
seemed to bury itself in mass of mllk-llke
loan, as If thousand demonds were drown
ing in the lashed waters of the green sea,
and that sent tremendous tidal waves tear
Ing across the depths that would nave
engulfed the Great Eastern had she been
near. 1t sank for second only and then
RAPIDLY reappeared with a creamy crest that
in shallow sheets of white poured down the
perpendicular sides of the mighty glacial
giant that was trying so hard 10 ind quiet
rest in his watery bed.
ANOTHER GRAVE DANGER.
Every observing bow and girl has prob
| ably noticed how much more powerful and
erratic are the winds around the base OF q
| yery high building in a city than elsewhere
| in il. And so with the great iceberg. Il
| catches all the wandering winds of the high
| heavens and directs them downward, wind
| ing and twisting around its base until it is
very unsafe for sailing boat to venture
near these eddying gusts. The Arctic
whalers, who are the best navigators ofthese
| ice-laden waters, call these little bergs, that
break off the big onees either above or be-
| low the water line, iceberg calves" and
they have no friendship for them for the
reasons have already given, although they
will occasionally deign to pull up alongside
| of a small "eali" and cut enough ice off of
| it (Which 1 suppose they ought to call
| "veal') to fill up their refrigerators or Ice
chests, and to have ice and ice water aboard
until it slowly meits and disappears
I have spoken OF them as little iceberSs,
| and they are so in comparison with the
parent berg from which they sprang, al
] though actually some OF them are found oc.
casionally as large as the biggest blocks OF
! buildings in New York City or Chicago. No
wonder is it then if 4 piece of ice as big as
| the New York City postofice or the Capitol
| at Washington or the Auditorium building
I of Chicago should break off from an ice
mountain, however large, that it might de-
| stroy the floating equilibrium OF it and set
| it to turning and spinning and lashing and
| smashing the water until it tiually settled to
q state OF rest.
| CUTTING THROUGH AN ICE FLoE.
| But of all the curious capers cut by these
| colossal masses of ice none is more singular,
not even their somersaults, than one saw
being performed in the entrance to Hudson
| Strait. A furious gale was raging that was
! driving drifting ice-pack before 1t as IT it
were herd of frightened animals. The
great fiat field and foes Of ice were speeding
| eastward before the whistling wind almost
as fast as our snug little ship; for we were
under double-ree ed sails, so furious was the
| Storm Looming up out of the drifting
gusts and whfrling eddies of the snow, bear
| ing westward, came the pearly sails OF an
Arctic ship-s mighty iceberg that with a
superb serenity in the awful storm cut its
wav directly through all the obstacles that
faced its front. 1t bore down in the very
teeth of the wind, and barred its boreal breast
| to the fields and foes, crushing them as il
they were so many eggshelis, and scattering
the fying glacial splinters port and star
board like swift-rolling wagon wheel scat
! ters the dust.
This mastless hyperborean hulk was obey
ing the mandates of marine current down
in the depths OF the old ocean bed. Six
seyenths of the iceberg is submerged, and
the superficial current, being shallow in
the strait, discovered BY old Heinrich Hud-
son, while the air, being so much lighter
than water that even a gale can form but a
small component OF the forces that deter
mine the track OF these Titans of the North,
so we were greatly awed and edited BY the
singular yet superb spectacle of an iceberg
sailing directly against the wind and fore
ing its way through fields of ice that would
have crushed and sunk the mightiest mailed
man-of-war Of modern times before it could
have made halt a mile.
FREDERICK SCHwATKA