Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-05
They Are Different From Those Seen
in Arctic Waters.
PERILOUS EXPERIENCE OF EXPLORERS
The Antarctic Continent Surround
ed by a Very Wide Pack.
HOME OF THE SOUTHERN BERG

reaches above freezing point. where the at
tenuated nature of the southern continent
allows free play to the polar currents. and
where the sun fails to bring out anything
that might be called a spring or summer
flower. it follows that the ice conditions
are vastly different from those of the
northern hemisphere, where az CORE
spending latitude summer clothes the land
with flowers and fills the air with innum-
cradle bees. These widely different Condi-
tons are easily seen by a passing COM
parison of the northern berg with the
southern: the former speedily becomes PIN
nacled and grOtesque it journeys south,
while the latter retains its original tabu-
lar form in very low ATTITUDES. 1t is only
when the southern berg reaches a distance
north where the sun at last begins 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 a polar basin, sur
rounded by vast tracts of land which re-
Jain the summer heat. the former is
comparatively small tract of land in a ire
InendOus expanse of water, which parts
with its heat very quickly.
Capt. Cooks Experience.
The home and origin of the southern
berg are a matter fun of romantic inter-
est. In 1IT4 Captain Cook sailed down
into the unknown antarctic regions, and
after terrible 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 a great ice barrier in
latitude II degrees south, where the noun
Jains Of ice, rising one above the other,
tier upon tier, into the distance, were lost
III the clouds OF the polar sky. The desc
late grandeur Of that icy coast appalled,
the great navigator, and, seeing no pos
sibiiity Of pushing to the pole over those
impossible mountains, he c0ntented hIm-
self 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 IN
terror, and of ice islands and floats near
the coast; and from his remarks 1t 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
mountain sides of this ice-bound, CONT
Mental coast, produced the tabular ice
berss by swapping off from time TO time at
their extremities, and these, once set free,
sailed northward in due time on the ocean
currents. This barrier discovered by Cook
was evidently outstanding coastline of
The antarctic continent, for more than half
a century later. Sir James Ross, in the
rier. probably continuous with that of
Cook, at far higher latitude of IS degrees
south. Here at the feet of the great vol
canoes ErebuS and Terror, so named after
his ships, Ross found further home of
the berg.
4 Scene OF GRANDEUR.
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 boidest and most skill
full navigator. Ross says this ice barrier
is perhaps more than LOCO feet thick
a mighty and wonderful object"
As the ice barrier, the bergs. When
they are set free they are solid fragments
of the parent glacier, with tops ike bill
lard tables and sides like cliffs, often
measuring as much as POO feet in height
and several miles in extent They main
tain their tabular character generally, and
their vast size until they either collide and
break up, suffer a thaw in low l2tl-
tudes In the former alternative they sup
plv the material for the floating icepdckS,
and in the latter they assume strange
shapes, turreted, pilnacled and under
mined. as, like gHstening fairy palaces,
Cook mentions several interesting bergs
with which he made acquaintance. One
was fifty feet high and half mile in cir
cumfereHCe. He says: 1t was fiat at the
top. and its sides rose in a perpendicular
direction against which the sea broke *
ceedingly high This berg must have been
from a barrier not very far south for the
further such a barrier is from the pole the
thinner the ice becomes.
In regard 20 this point it may be men
toned that in 1888 Larsen found in era
hams Land a barrier which, being in a
comparatively low latitude, was only from
twenty TO sixty feet high, while that dis
covered by Ross in latitude IS degrees 5.
was very much higher. ID Grville. the gal
liant French explorer, met with bergS in
latitude ~ degrees S. II would appear from
This that their place of origin was an ice
barrier even further south than that found
by Sir James Ross. The Dundee whalerS
in tS.g2-.ti also saw bergs over 2DO feet high:
these, too. in all probability. came from a
barrier which DIR. Murray is of opinion
faces an open sea for some distance south
of Ross Ultima Thule. And if there be an
limited at by Mr. Bulls measurements in
1886 of berg GnO feet high, which at first
he miStook for an island
Eject of a Thew.
A thaw among antarctic bergs is not often
met with even in the height OF summer: but
20 show that such a thing does occur occa-
sionally the experience of Ross may be
mentioned On one occasion when he was
considerably within the antarctic circle the
thermometer stood at L degrees but in the
berss all around there were evidences that
they had suffered a partial thaw some time
previously. for great iciclcs hung from
their sides. On another occasion outside.