The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-01-22
:ICEBERGS DANCING JIss.
AcrobAtic Antics Of the Huge Hyper
borean Hippopotarii In the
North Sea-
Wonders Of tho Unknown Land
Told by Lieut.. 6chwatka,
OF the Jeanette.
Co~nstsrnation When nm Iceberg Parts In
Twain-Reason. why ships Come
Not to Fort.

No n who has ever seen a grand, stately
iceberg on its ''solemn southwark march,
would ever credit these floating islands Of
Ice with undignified capers and cratic
movements, 80 impressive in the mir Of aw.
full stiffness and almost solemn solidity that
surrounds these colossal children Of cold
climates. Still . great mountain Of ice will
sometimes vary it's monotonous movements
Of steady drifting by turning .somersaults
and double somersaults until IL looks like
some huge hyperberean hippopotamns, with
skin Of anow-like w~hiteness, w~aliowing
around in the waters Of the northern sea.
have seen but n such ovsrturning Of
these moving mountains OF marble, and
surely it looked as II the great waters Of
the deep were breaking up'' and that the
end Of all things had come, says Frederick
schwatka, the great arctic explorer in the
Philadelphia Press. Crest green wave
went laundering by a. II a hurricane might
have been bowling for hours across the sea
that but q few moments before had been al
motionless AZ q mill pond. Flying f1ecks OF
foam dashed down from the dizzy heighta
above, and It's slippery sides were almost
coversd with cascades formed from the
waters that had been lifted up by the rapid.
~ overtnfning berg.
The hrst intimation we had OF the com~
ing on Of the convulsion was a dull shock
from under the water against u ships
side as il q submarine blast had been ex-
ploded, q shock very much like that given
whom tho great He'll Gate mine in New
York harbor was sprung, and : moment IT.
side of the iceberg was apr aren't, and q vast
lake OF uplifted waters broke 4 snow-white
mass Of ice that had been detached from
the huge crystal mountain far down In the
oceans depths, and which came whirling
TO the surface with q swiftness that seemed
TO lift it half way ont Of the sea and kept 1t
spinning and ,s~plashing for . full five min
The release Of this portion OF its frozen
letters far below had disturbed the stable
equilibrium''-as the learned scientists
would say-Of the greater and parent berg.
and q moment afterward 1t began its stu
.pendous swayinQ, as ii some earthquake
were influencing it from beneath, until in
one OF its colossal screenings it fell over
like foam, as If a thousand demons were
drowning in the lashed waters of tho green
sea, and that sent tremendous tidal waves
tearing across the depths that would have
engulfed the Great Eastern had she been
near. II sank for a second only. and then
rapidly r~sappesred with q creamy crest that
in shallow sheets Of white poured down til Q
giant that was trying 20 hard to find aquiet
rest in his wAtery bed.
It clearly behnnves tie navigator Of the
northern seas not u. approach too near
these Arctic acrobsss ~hen they are feeling
in their best moods for q little quiet fur o.
their own. And they do give them q wide
berth, too, when they are sailing in these
waves which they set in motion when they
turn a saltwater eomersault, but if they ap.
proach dire city alongside. one Of the as
cending pieces of ice may pop up from be-
low and crush in the bottom of the big boat
which may then start for the bottom as fasl
as the piece OF ice had come to the top.
So between the little icebergs popping nj
from the water below and falling dow
from the sides above, coupled with a chanc.
of the colossus of them all turning a hyper
borean handspring that fairly sets the OLE
ocean frantic with excitement, and not for
getting the twisting tornadoes that the berg
brings down to it's base, makes it aItogethel
an uncertain undertaking to have a polal
picnic too near one of these crystal noun
tains.
have spoken of them as little icebergs
and they are SO in comparison with the par
ent berg from which they sprang, although
actually some of them are found occasion
ally as big as the largest blocks of build
;nEs in New YORK city or Chicago. No won.
der is it, then, if a piece of ice as big as the
New York city postoffice or the capitol al
Washington or the Auditorium building oil
Chicago should break Oft from an ice noun.
tain, however large, that it might destroy
the floating equilibrium of it and set it to
turning and spinning and lashing and
splashing the water until it finally settled
to a state of rest.
But OF all the curious carers cut by these
colossal masses of ice non 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 q drifting ice-pack before it as if it
were a herd Of frightened animals. The
great fat fields and foes of ice were speed
ing eastward before the whistling wind al
most as fast As our snug little ship. for VIC
were under doubie-reefed sails, so farious
was the storm. Looming up out of the
drifting gusts and whirling eddies of the
snow, bearing westward, came the pearly
sails of IN Arctic ship-a mighty iceberg
that with q superb serenity in the awful
storm cut it's way directly through all the
obstacles that faced its front. Il bore down
in the very teeth of the wind, and barred its
boreal breast to the fields and foes, crush
luR tAeIu q - II tQ0J WoIo % Luhuy egG-SlellH
and scattering the flying glacial splinters
port and starboard like a swift-rolIing
wagon wheel scatters sthe dust.
This mastless hyperborean bulk was
oboying the mandates of a marine current
down in the depths of old oceans bed.
OF the iceberg is submerged.
and the superficial current is shallow in the
strait discovered by old Hendrix Hudson.
Moreover. tho cir is SO much lighter than
water that even a gale can form but n small
component of the forces that determine the
track of these Titans Of the north; SO we
were greatly aved and edited by the sineu-
lar yet superb spectacle Of an iceberg snil-
ing directly against the wind and forcing
its way through fields Of ice that would
have sunk and crushed the mightiest mailed
man-of-war of modern times before it could
havs made half q mile.
Let tha voysger to the regions of eternal
ice and dEenry desolation encounter this.
and tie ovsrturning Of a great iceberg, and
he can truly say he has seen the most won
derful sights that can be put before the eye
OF man in that zone which all travellers of
wide experience hive held to be the won
deYland Of the world.