The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1896-05-15

80 y. A Panorama In Ice,
No liner ever had a more specta cular
voyage than the twin-screw Atlantic
transport steamship Mobile, which ar
rived yesterday from London. The Mo-
bile, carried thirty-four saloon passengers.
among whom were many children. When
she struck the latitude of the southeast
erly edge of the banks, OH Friday last,
the temperature took tumble of 80 de,
grees, and the passengers who had been
on deck for several days sought comfort
in the saloon. AT 8 O'Clock that morn
ing point. Capt. Layland had observed
at dawn an immense ice field to the
southwest of the ship. He changed his
course to the westward to avoid danger
in the masses of drifting ice.o But he
couldn't escape the crystalline panorama,
and the children, who. peeped through
the ports at the gorgeous arctic show,
We're glad he couldn't. 80. So -.
There was stiff wind blowing from
the ice caverns of the North, and is was
hustling the big bergs down across the
westward steamship track. There were
fleets and fleets of them, so many that
Capt. Layland couldn't count them, and
so fantastic that the children couldn't
be persuaded to leave the ports for fear
of missing any part of the spectacle. The
captain says that the sea to the south
of him for miles and miles looked in
the clear atmosphere like frozen city
adrift. The bergs were from 20 to 200
feet high. Some of them were green,
and simmered like spring foliage after a
shower These We're bergs recently de-
tached from the great glaciers of Lab
rador; Others of the gigantic fleet were
snow white, and under the glare of the
sun and, the warm influence of the Gulf
stream they We're fast going to pieces
Cataracts and rivulets poured down their
honeycombed sides into the sea with a
gurgle that was heard aboard the ship
For four hours the Mobile threaded her
way among the big and little bergs and
foes. She was. forced to change her
course five times to avoid collision or i'm.
prisonment. Every now and then one of
the honeycombed ice mountains would
turn turtle" with q rush and roar
that filled the hearts of the little ones at
the ports with wonder and delight
1t was so cold when the ship was in
the middle of the great pack that only
few of the hardest passengers vent
ured ON deck. They wore their over
coats. and Capt: Layland says that the
officers found peajackets comfortable.
The biggest berg seen was about 200
feet high and nearly a quarter of a mile
pinnacles and all sorts of architectural
ice frills. The ship steamed so close to
several of the big bergs that good ball
player might have easily tossed ball
to them. Some of the bergs were almost
circular and so white that they looked
like mammoth snowballs. Capt. Lay
land says that he doesn't believe that the
lane. Nearly all of the ice was melting
rapidly as it approached the edge of the
gulf stream. There was Il very little
of it to the northward of him, but, as far
as the vision extended. it stretched to the
south and the east. There was also a
good deal of it to the west.
The brand-new steamship Glenlochy
from Glasgow, which completed her
maiden trip to this port yesterday. also
had an experience with the bergs on the
same day. One looked just like a dis
mantled steamship carved in crystal, It
was awash amidships. 1t had a we'll
defined bow and stern, The: water
pouring over the side was from the melt
ing of the berg, but it had the appear
ance OF being a sea that had swept
athwart the ship-like phantom.-New
York Sun, April %.
A Whale Run Down.
Capt. J. c. Hunter, master of the
steamer Umatilla, has had many ex-
periences in his life on the sea, but the
strangest of all came last evening as he
was carefully guiding his vessel around
the treacherous rocks of Cape Flattery
anu into the straits, says dispatch
from Port Townsend, April II, to the
San Francisco Call. The vessel was
proceeding under easy steam, when the
outlook forward reported something
floating that looked like an overturned
schooner. The Umatilla's powerful
glasses were at once turned on the
Wreckage, and the experienced eye of
Capt. Hunter told him it was nothing
but whale, although it was a monster.
1t was the work of moment to de-
eide what to do, and Capt. Hunter
swung the Umatilla around on bee line
with the sleeping monster and rang
The Umatilla answered quickly and was
soon leaping through the water toward
the leviathan. "A moment later and the
vessel struck the whale, and for about
ten seconds there was oil poured On
troubled waters. The passengers felt
the lurch of the craft and rushed on
deck in time, to: see the two ends Of: the
half-severed mammal dangling at the
Prov of the steamer. p.
The force of the blow had not driven
the steamer entirely through the whale,
IAuS III pAOACAOASC ~ puSAAu6 tue *
mains into Victoria, Capt. Hunter
backed away from it. Then it could be
seen that the whale was of the hump
back variety, over fifty feet in length.
Several camera 'fiends" were aboard,
and secured good negatives of the I'M
slightly sight. 49, 49,
There were four passengers on deck
at the time the whale was struck, but
it did not take long for all to get there.
The bump against the sleeping monster
sent soup and tea flying in all directions
in the dining room, and it looked for a
time as though there was going to be
a panic. Everything quoted down as
soon as the passengers were informed
of the cause Of the shock.
A Sweet Story About Stanley.
When Stanley was writing his
Through the Dark Continent in Lon
don he used often, from want of fiat
surface, to spread his maps and charts
upon the floor, and one day the cat of
the house, which had taken an extraor-
binary liking for the great explorer, and
passed most of her time in his rooms,
went to sleep on a chart that was
spread out on the hearthrug.t BY: and
by the chart was wanted, and one Of
Stanley's assistants was going to turn
puss off it, when .'the man who found
Livingston" stopped him. Don't dis
fI1rh tho oof d. hn said. two oQn fpnt on