The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-08-28
ANTARCTIC ICEBERGS.
DIFFERENT FROM THOSE SEEN N
ARCTIC WATERS.
Perilous Experience of Explorers.
The Antarctic Continent Surround
ed by a Very Wide Pack-Home of
The

ed by n Very Wide Pack-HOme of
the Southern Berg.
From the London Globe
The icebergs of the south differ from
those Of the North as the Antarctic sum
mer from that OF the Arctic. In a region
where the summer temperature rarely
reaches above freezing point, where the at
tenuated nature of the Southern continent
allows free play TO the polar currents, aud
where the sun fails 10 bring out anything
that might be called 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 hlls 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 as il journeys South.
while the latter retains its original tabu-
lar form in very low ATTITUDES 1t is only
when the Southern berg reaches distance
north where the sun at last begins to make
his heat felt that it thaws and presents
the great needle points and gutteriug cas-
cados observed so frequently within the
Arctic circle
This difference of temperature between
the summer of the Antarctic aud that Of
the Arctic is due 10 the fact that, while
the latter region is a polar basin, sur
rounded by vast tracts of land which re-
tain the summer heat. the former is a com.
parauve.y small tract of land in a ire
meudous eXpdnse OF water, which parts
with its heat very quickly
Capt. Cooks Experience.
The home and origin Of the Southern berg
are mater full of romantic interest In
l1A Capt. Cook sailed down iuto the un-
known antarctic regions. and after terrible
hArdShips reached a spot where he saw
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 Il degrees
south, where the mountains of ice. rising
one above the other. tier upon tier, into
I 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 impossible mountains. he con-
/ tented 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 the vast glaciers descending
from the interior, and of ice Islands and
| floats near the coast; and from his re
marks 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
mountain sides of this ice-bound, CONT
| mental coast, produced the tabular ice
| bergs by swapping off from time to time
| at their eXtremites, and these, once set
| free, sailed nOrthward in due time on the
] N. a
! by Cook was evidently an outstanding
coastine of the antarctic continent for
more than half a century later, Sir James
/ Ross in the Erebus and the Terror found
similar barrier, probably continuous
with that of Cook, at a far higher latitude
of Is degrees south. Here at the feet Of the
great volcanoes Erebus and Terror so
named after his ships, Ross found fur
ther home of the berg.
A Scene of Grandeur.
This coast of Victoria Land was a grant
scene of glaciers launching their gigantic
ends into the sea. From the coastne
where the walls of ice stood as sheer ellis
| hundreds of feet high. the mountains In
land ranged one over the other, culminat-
| ing in the volcanic peaks 1900 feet hisn
| And down the grooves of these mountains
came the slow-moving glaciers TO people
| The southern seas with the floating dangers
!
| intense risk to the bo.dest and most skill
| full navigator. Ross says this ice barrier
| is perhaps more than 1000 feet thick
a mighty and wonderful object"
As the ice barrier, 50 the bergs. When
| obey ore set free they are solid fragments
Of the present g.acier, with tops ike Dll-
Hard tables and sides like cliffs, often
measuring as much as 200 feet in hight
and several miles In extent. They main
| tain their tabular character generally, and
their vast size until they either collide and
break up, or suffer thaw in low lati-
tudes In the former alternative they sup
ply the material for the floating Ice packs
and in the latter they assume strange
shapes, turreted. pinacled, and under
mined as like gastening fairy palaces
| they slowly dissolve beneath the sunlight
Cook mentions several interesting berss
| with which he made acquaintance. one
was fifty feet high and half mile in cir
conference. He says: 1T was fiat at the
top, and its sides rose in a perpendicular
direction, against which the sea broke ex
ceedingly high" This berg must have beer
from a 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 mem
toned that in 1893 Larsen found IN Ora,
hams Land barrier which, being in Z
comparatively low latitude, was only from
covered by Ross IN latitude rs degrees
south was very much higher. D'Urvihc
the gallant French explorer, met with
bergs in latitude 50 degrees south. i
would appear from this that their plac,
OF origin was an ice barrier even further
south than that found by Sir James Ross
The Dundee whalers in 1928 also saw
oergs over 200 feet high; these, too, in al
proba bllity, came from barrier which DR.
Murray is of opinion faces an open sec
for some distance south Of Ross Ulumf
Thule. And, II there be an ice coast still
further south, it Is vaguely limited at by
Mr.. Bulls measurements in 1896 of a berl
600 feet high, which at first he mistook fol
an island.
Effects of Thaw.
A thaw among Antarctic bergs is no
often met with even in The hight Of sum
mer; but to show that such thing doe,
occur occasionally the experience OF Rosl
may be mentioned. on one occasion wheI
he was considerably within the Antarctic
circle the thermometer stood at u degrees
but in the bergs all around there were EVIL
dences that they had suffered a partia
srgr.uHs rlrs To-