Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1901-09-29

| Stte. ne OuQs NOuiu Oe q $npuSaud 10
one that the boats would be ground 20
/ pieces in ten minutes. but we had to
take. them. While we helplessly wat
/ ed the field struck a berg which WAS
estimated TO be a solid cube measur-
Ing about 1000 yards on every froEt
and towering up over q bundled feet
high. There was grand crash and the
berg began TO slowly topple. II was
like a tree failing. only much slower.
| Il took a long minute for that mon
/ strous cube to turn turtle, and as the
top raehed the water the mass crack
ed in twain with report like the firing
of cannon, The sea kicked up grad
| ually, opened a wide lane In the ice
| field, and the bark was headed in and
had clear sailing for ten miles before
we found the passage blocked by one
of the biggest icebergs set afioat. Had
that been measured ! should have had
some wonderful figures TO set down
here, but 1t was impossible for us 10
more than guess at its dimensions,
Tho waves had squared its four sides
+ to great extent, but above their wash
the berg was full of hius. valleys and
ravines, and II would have been inn
possible to cross 1t.
As there was no way 10 dodge tho
berg. we put out an ice anchor and
made fast 10 drive with IL until an
opening should occur. The side on
which we were was as straight up and
down as wall, and. though the wind
was whistling far overhead, it was
scarcely to be felt on deck. We passed
a very quiet night. and soon after sun
rise next morning the captain ordered
me to take two men and pass over the
field ice and get a view of the western
face of the berg. If found that 1t
could be done, | was TO Chamber up
and look to the north for clear water.
| As the great cakes of Ice were wedged
together In the greatest confusion, our
pace was necessarily slow. and II was
a matter of two hourse before we turn
ed the corner of the berg and lost sight
of the bark judged the western face
TO be mile long. but 1t was not rs
steep as the southern. About midway
of its length we came TO gully, up
which we toiied for matter of 200
yards We then found our way block
ed by cliff atty feet high. 1t was a
cliff of ice, of course. though here and
there one could see bowlder creeping
out. II was blue ice, almost as refleo-
tive as a mirror, and II would have
turned the edge of an AK like gram
lite. We stood staring and resting. hot
enough with our exertions, when one
of the sailors leaped aside and cried
out
"I'll be shot If there are not ship
wrecked people right here above us!
Look here. sir. And why haven't they
raised a shout?"
What | saw and what we all gazed
at with open mouths was a sight few
men will ever boast of seeing. About
thirty feet above our heads a man
dressed as a mountain tourist, an Eng
lishman apparently, was lying at full
length with his face toward us. One
arm was doubled up under him, the
other outstretched He was fully
dressed, had cap on his head, and his
| a
rope around his waist. and that rope
led back to the body OF guide and
still second one. say guide because
frem their dress and looks ! believed
them to be such. One was huddled up
as IL his bones we're broken, while the
| other lay sprawled on his back. The
the three of us had waved our caps and
| cheered before the thought came TO us
| that these men were dead-dead and
| frozen into that flinty ice for heaven
only knows how long. And yet it was
hard TO believe it. We could see every
line in their faces and every instant 1t
seemed as II they would move leg or
an arm. We had brought rope with
us. and I managed to lasso bowlder
and pull myself up on level with the
victims. I judged that there was at
least three feet Of solid ice before them,
but it was wonderfully transparent.
plainly saw that the tourist had brok-
en- leg, and had letter addressed to
him been lying there | could have read
the name with ease.
1t was easy to guess what had hap
pened. Somewhere thousands OF miles
away, where great glacier crept down
to the sea, the tourist had set out with
the guides to explore, and snow or Ice.
had given way under them And drop
ped them down perhaps hundred feet
In time the crevasse filled UP solid,
and as the ice was pushed down to the
sea a berg was born. and the corpses
were carried away with it. One could
not say from the dress how long time
had elapsed. We must judge from the
th1 ri I'D a a