Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1891-01-17

above, coupled with a chance Of the
colossus of them all turning a hypcrbo-
rean handspring that fairly sets the old
ocean frantic with excitement. and not
forgetting the twisting tornaioes that
the berg brings down 10 its base makes
it altogether an uncertain undertaking TO
have polar picnic too near one OF these
crystal mountains.
The Arctic whalers. who are the bcs,
navigators of these ice laden waters. call
these little bergs tha. break off of the
big ones either above or below the water
line iceberg calves, and they have ne
friendship for them. although they will
occasionally deign to pull up alongside
of q small ''ealf'' and cut enough ice of
OF it (Which suppose they ought to call
"veal') to fill up their refrigerators or
ice chests and have ice and ice water
aboard until it slowly melts and iisap-
pears.
Each one of these little % icebergs
again sheds still smaller ones rs il SLOWLY
crumbles to pieces on its march toward
the equator, and the huge iceberg itself
with which we first began onr descrip-
ton, was only "calf' that had once
broken off from the seaward face of the
grand glacier or huge. moving river OF
ice. SO they keep dividing aud subdi-
viding as they march along until the
massive mountain Of ice that broke of
from the Greenland glacier in the Artic
seas really becomes merely millions of
molehills Of ice in the temperate waters
of the warmer seas, and then it disap-
pears altogether. And every tire they
split asunder we have an Artlc acrobat
performance.
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 rag.
ing that was driving drifting icepack
before it as if it were Il herd of fright
ened animals. The great fiat fields and
| foes of ice were speeding eastward be.
| fore the whistling wind almost as fast as
our snug little ship, for we were under
| double reefed sails, SO furious was the
storm.
Looming up out of the drifting gusts
I and whrling cddies Of the snow, bearing
westward, came the pearly sails of an
Arctic ship-a mighty iceberg with
superb serenity in the awful stprm cut
its way directly through all the obstacles
that faced its front. It bore down in
the very teeth of the wind and barred its
boreal breast to the fields and foes,
crushing them a. if they were so many
egg shells, and scattering the flying
glacial splinters port audf,arh hoard like IA
swift rolling wagon wheel scatters the
dust.
This mastless hypelboreau hulk was
| obeving the mandate of Il marine current
down in the depths Of the ORD oceans
bed Six sevcnths Of the iceberg is sub
merged, and the superficial current being
shallow in the strait discovered b old
Heinrich Hudson, while the air, being 50
much lighter than water, that even gale
can form but a small component OF the
forces that determine the track Of these
Titans Of the North 50 we were greatly
awed and edited by tie singular yet su-
perb spectacle. Of an iceberg sailing di-
lectly against the wind and forcing its
way through fields Of ice that would
have crushed and sunk the snighticst
mailed man Of war of modern times be-
fore it could have made half a mile. 1t
will impress one for life II but once en-
countered, and is curious scene that bu'
few have ever witnessed.