The Nome nugget., 1902-05-17
And Its Many PeCuliarities { During Spring Break-Up.
INTERESTING FACTS
Capt. Siem Tells of the Way the Ice Pack Forms, How It Is Broken and By What Infiuences-.No Two Sea- sons Alike, Say Old Navigators.

iI3 AldShd ueHCIl ps icolHcA" iA'o"S .selt constitutional A young lawyer, perhaps, just seeking admission to the bar, would be most likely prepared to answer this question in decisive way, and, of course, the examining judge would forthwith admit him into the legal forum, smiling into his gray beard that such q bright and shin ing yOungster, who could off-hand render such important constitutional decisions, could be i'll spared from the bar.
 Likewise the ''chechako"-we have all been chechakos once upon time is always in position to give quick and decided answer to the leading question of the day in Nome: "When will the ice move out and the first boat arrive?" Nobody is ever so cock-sure as chechako. 1 once had occasion to ask an old Yankee whaling skipper, who had then come north for more than 30 summers, how the ice generally worked in the Boring sea. when the sea could be expected to be open, and what course would be best to steer to get north the quickest. My son." he said, "I give it up. l have got more experience with every year, but 1 know less, and though have grown gray at the business in these waters have never yet seen two seasons alike. Why." he kept on, ''there was young Ed Smith, who had been in the South seas after sperm whales all his days; he came up north here one year master of the old bark Coral. and I will be hanged if he didn't sail right straight up to the Bering straits and filled up his ship while all us old-timers were lying hard and fast in the ice down off the gulf of Holy Cross. He was crow ing not a little bit, and of course he knew all about it. The owners. the next season, fitted the best vessel they had for him-well, the old dutfer is fourth <mate with me here now."
 Still the laws of nature are always logical, more so than human laws, which are principally based on customs and precedentS. Causes and effects. WHICH ueIcEluluC tIlt IlOblOlS uIIu actions of the ice masses in Bering sea, are the same from year to year, but to make prognOSticatiOnS or to lay down fixed rules and lines regarding them would be as futile as making weather predictions, unless we possessed per feet oversight of all the causes and con ditions which lead up to them. In wears to come. when we shall have grown to greater commercial import ance and the United States congress might, perchance, be aroused from it's lethargy concerning our Alaska pos sessions. signal stations, in telegraphic communication with each other. may be established at a number of points on this coast, and We may be put in posi- tion then to wire to Seattle the date when it would be best that year for the steamers to start for Nome. Until such time the arrival of the first boat will be always an all-arOund fair betting DropoSi1ion. AS an old-timer in these Iatitudes, however, 1 have naturally formed certain fixed ideas with regard to the general conditions. 1 shall en- deavor to set these forth below, but wish it understood in advance that they are simply my ideas, and not facts to gamble on.
 Every year, in the fall vast fields of ice will drift out of the Arctic ocean through the Bering straits, driven by the then prevailing heavy northerly gales to the south along the Siberian coast, at times grounding there on shoal places close to shore, at times ex' sending their forced voyages way down to Kamchatka OF, being taken hold o1 by a switching southerly gale, sailing over to the Alaska coast. These in trudinc Arctic foes form the nucleu: of the Bering sea pack. As winter closes in and the cold weather in creases, all the numerous bays ant inlets of this large sea freeze over ant large, cohesive sheets of ice form them selves over its wide waters. The shit ing, winds will tear this ice loose il large fields from their land moorings drive them out to sea and, whirllnt yhem around, telescope them together into large masses. which will knit to rether -solidly on the first cold ant calm day. Gradually, as the winte progresses, these masses will increas' in Size and become more st..nor' compact, swinging back and forth witt inc .changiug winds from shore |, shore until the whole sea is nearl. filled and packed with 'heavy ant jagged ice masses. Over them blOv the heavy March gales, cold and dry All oscillation seems to have ceased fu a while. The ice king reigns suprem and motionless, in silent grandeur lie his realm. Then comes spring ridin; along on the swelling waters, and witt it's coming starts the disintegration o the ice kings gigantic structure. Tn
 miohty ice-cap cracks near and far ,leads Open out here and there, int
 which rush the warm waters from tn sunny south. forced to the north b strong equinoctial gales. The ic
 masses start to swing back and fortl again, grinding themselves to pieces and, melting and growing less as tn
 strong currents from the south gal