The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-05-05
A PANORAMA IN ICE.
MILES OF eEReS AND FLoEs LIKE A
FROZEN CITY ADRlFT.

Two Steamships Ran Through Them-Fan.
tastio Show OF Ice Arohitecture-Ice
Phantom OF ship-The Little Ones
Nightly Pleased.
No liner ever had a more spectacular
voyage than the twin screw Atlantic
transport steamship Mobile, which ar
rived at New York recently from Lon
don. The Mobile carried "a saloon pas
senSers, among whom were many chill
dren- When she struck the latitude Of
the southeasterly edge Of the Banks,
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 o'clock that morn
ing the mercury had fallen to the freez-
ing point Captain Layland had OBJ
served at dawn an immense icefield 10
the southwest Of the ship. He changed
his course to the westward to avoid dan
ger III the masses of drifting Ice. But he
couldn't escape the crystalline piano.
rama, and the children, who peeped
through the ports at the gorgeous arctic
show, were glad he couldn't
There was stiff wind blowing from
the ice caverns of the north, and il was
hustling the big bergs down across the
westward steamship track. There were
fleets and fleets of them, so many that
Captain 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 spec
tacle- The captain says that the sea to
the south of him for miles and miles
looked in the clear atmosphere like q
frozen city adrift
\ The bergs were from 30 to 200 feet
high. Some Of them were green, and
shimmered like spring foliage after q
shower. These were bergs recently de-
itached from the great glaciers of Labra-
dor Others Of the gigantic feet were
snow white, and under the glare of the
!. sun and the warm influence of the gulf
stream they were fast going to pieces.
Cataracts and rivulets poured down
their honeycombed sides into the sen
with 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 imprisonment Every now
and then one of the honeycombed ice
mountains would turn turtle with a
rush and a roar that filled the hearts of
the little ones at the ports with wonder
and delight
1t was so cold when tho ship was in
the middle of the great pack that only a
few of the hardest passengers ventured
on deck. They wore their overcoats,
and Captain Layland says that the Off
GERS found pea jackets comfortable The
biggest berg seen was about 200 feet
high and nearly quarter of mile
long. 1t was decorated with minarets,
pinnacles and all sorts of architectural
ice fr-lls 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 al
most circular and so white that they
looked like mammoth snowballs. Cap
tain Layland says that he doesn't be-
Ieve that the ice extended to the south
ern steamship lane. Nearly all of the
ice melting rapidly az it approached
the edge of the gulf stream. There was
a very little of it to the northwest of
him, but, as far rs the vision extended,
it stretched to the south and the east.
There was also good deal of it to the
west
The brand new steamship Glenlochy,
from Glasgow, which has just complet-
ed her maiden trip, also had an expert
ence with the bergs on the same day.
One looked just like a dismantled
steamship carved in crystal 1t was
awash amidships. 1t had well defined
bow and stern The water pouring over
the side was from the melting of the
berg. but it had the appearance of being
sea that had swept athwart the ship
hike phantom. New York Sun.