The evening times., 1899-08-11
ANTARCTIC CE FL0BS
Different From Those Of the Arctic
Waters.
The Southern Continent surrounded
by a Very Wide Pack Which 1t Is
Almost Impossible to Penetrate.
The Perilous Experience of Explor-
ers-Among the Mammoth Bergs.
(From the London Globe.)

From the London Globe.)
The icebergs of the South differ from
those OF the North as the Antartic summer
from that OF the Arctic. In a region where
the summer temperature rarely reaches
above freezing point, where the sun fails
to bring out anything that might be called
spring or summer flower. 1t follows that
the ice conditions are vastly different from
those OF the Northern Hemisphere, where
at corresponding latitude summer clothes
the land with flowers and fills the air with
innumerable bees. These widely different
conditions are easily seen by a passing
comparison OF the northern berg with the
southern; the former speedily becomes
pinnacled and grotesque as 1t Journeys
south, while the latter retains its original
tabular form in very low latitudes. It Is
only when the southern berg reaches a
distance north where the sun at last be-
gins to make his heat felt that it thaws
and presents the great needle points and
guttering cascades observed so frequently
within the Arctic Circle.
This difference OF temperature between
the summer of the Antarctic and that OF
the Arctic is due TO the fact that, while
the latter region Is polar basin, surround
ed by vast tracts of land which retain the
summer heat. the former Is comparative
ly small tract of land in tremendous ex-
panse of water, which parts with its heat
very quickly.
The home and origin of the southern
berg are matter full of romantic interest.
In 1774 Captain Cook sailed down into the
unknown Antarctic regions, and after ter
rible hardships reached spot where he
saw a snow white brightness in the clouds
to the south, and he knew he was near
the ice fields. Four hours later he was
stopped by great ice barrier in latitude
Il degrees south, where the mountains OF
ice, rising one above the other, tier upon
tier, into the distance, were lost in the
clouds OF the polar sky. The desolate
grandeur of that icy coast appalled, the
great navigator, and, seeing no possibility
OF pushing TO the pole over those impassa-
BILE mountains. he contented himself with
having gone further than any one had
ever been before, and, he thought, as far
as any man could go. He speaks of vast
glaciers descending from the interior, and
of ice islands and floats near the coast; and
from his remarks il is easily seen that he
had found the home of the southern bergs.
The glaciers, coming slowly down from
the interior, being launched between the
mountains of this ice-bound, continental
coast produced the tabular icebergs by
swapping off from time to time at their
extremities, and these, once set free, sail
ed northward in due time on the ocean cur
rents. This barrier discovered by Cook
was evidently an outstanding coastline of
the Antarctic continent for. more than
half a century later Sir James Ross, In
the Erebus and the Terror, found a simi-
lar h1rrier, probably continuous with that
of Cook at far higher latitude OF IS de-
greeS south. Here at the feet OF the great
volcanoes Erebus and Terror, so named
after his ships, Ross found further home
of the berg.
This coast of Victoria Land was a grand
scene OF glaciers launching their gigantic
ends into the sea. From the coastline,
where the walls OF ice stood as sheer cliffs
hundreds of feet high, the mountains in
land ranged one over the other, culminat-
ing in the volcanic peaks 1900 feet high.
And down the grooves of these mountains
came the slow moving glaciers to people
the southern seas with the floating dangers
which render exploration there thing OF
intense risk to the boldest and most skillful
navigator. Ross says this ice barrier is
perhaps more than 1000 feet thick
a mighty and wonderful object.
AS the ice barrier, so the bergs. When
they are set free they are solid fragments
of the parent glacier, with tops like billiard
tables and sides like cliffs, often measur-
ing as much as 200 feet in height and sew
erai miles in extent. They maintain theiI
tabular character generally, and their vast
size until they either collide and break up
or suffer thaw in low latitudes. In the
former alternative they supply the material
for the floating icepacks, and in the latter
they assume strange shapes. turreted, pin
nacled and undermined, as like glisteping
fairy palaces, they slowly dissolve beneath
the sunlight Cook mentions several inter-
esting bergs with which he made acquaint-
ance. One was fifty feet high and half a
mile in Circumference. He says: 1T was
fiat at the top, and its sides rose in per-
pendicuiar direction, against which the
sea broke exceedingly high" This berg
must have been from barrier not very far
SOUTH for the further such a barrier is
from the Pole the thinner the ice becomes.
In regard to this point 1t may be men,
toned that in 1893 Larsen found in Gra-
hams Land a barrier which, being in a
comparatively low latitude, was only from
twenty feet to sixty feet high. while that
discovered by Ross In latitude Is degrees
south, was very much higher. D'Urville,
the gallant French explorer. met with bergs
in latitude SO degrees south. II would ap-
pear from this that their place of origin
was an ice barrier ever further south than
that found by Sir James Ross. The Dun
dee whalers in 1928 also saw bergs over
200 feet high; these, too. in all probability
of opinion faces an open sea for some dis
tance south of Ross Ultima Thule. And.
II there be an ice coast still further south,
it is vaguely limited at by Mr.. Bulls meas
urements In 1896 of a berg 500 feet high.
which at first he mistook for an island.
thaw among Antarctic bergS is not
often met with even in the height of sum-
mer; but to show that such thing does
occur occasionally the experience of Ross
may be mentioned. On one occasion when
he was considerably within the Antarctic
Circle the thermometer stood at IL degrees,
but in the bergs all around there were evil
dences that they had suffered a partial
thaw some time previously. for great icicles
hung from their sides. On another occa-
sion outside the Circle he saw complets
thaw attended by sounds like the discharge
of heavy artillery, as the huge masses split
and fell apart. But. although the bergs
are seldom melted in high latitudes, they
selves; they run into one another and break
up into small junks. which strew the sea
for miles around The dense icepack thus
formed is one of the greatest dangers to
navigation in those regions: indeed, the
struggles Of men with the everlasting ice
packs form the main part of the history
of South Polar exploration.
In his first voyage Ross forced his way
through pack 200 miles in breadth. and in
the following year he found the same pack
increased to 500 miles. On this occasion
it cost him just eight weeks of the short
southern summer to force his way through.
Part of the way he proceeded in a novel
fashion, with the Erebus lashed to one side
of small berg and the Terror to the 9TH
er This method succeeded we'll. for the
A. tod xHo loA