The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-08-10
ICEBERGS ARE
OBJECTS OF WONDER
Strange Characteristics Noted
In Them by Seamen in
Far North.

Do YOU remember how much you ad-
mired the designs last Christmas
morning on your window panes. Frost
lace we might call the delicate trac-
cry, and how eagerly we watched 1t
fade into oblivion, the fancy pictures
disappearing as the frost melted by
degrees with the increasing heat Of the
room. until one charming cOnceit merg-
ed into another, and the drops OF water
trickled down in serpent-lke rllls on
the glass and formed little streamlet
on the lower part OF the window
frame?
Do you remember, when the last
snow fell, your delight upon seeing
such beautiful flowers in each feathery
flake of snow, when magnified by the
microscope? OF course you do, and
you must admit that water, in either
the LIQUID or solid form, or as vapor or
gas, is one of the most interesting and
attractive objects in nature. The magic
forces of a little more or less heat Will
cause a drop of water to exist In any
one Of the three named forms.
Did you ever see ray of heat sent
through a piece of ice? If you have
not. get some one to send a ray from
an electric lamp through block of ice,
and then have a magnifyIng glass close
by and see what takes place; or better
still have it thrown on screen IKE a
magic lantern picture. 1t will certainly
be an interesting study, and you will be
very much pleased with the expert
ment. The melting first begins by bub-
bIes forming at various points, not air
bubbles, but empty spaces, and from
these there shoots out, as If by magic,
a form like the petal OF flower, Iol.
lowed by another and another, until
around this one bubble there is SIX
leayed ice flower, which Is very pretty
indeed.
Water in the liquid state is an abso-
lutte necessity of life. The solid condi-
ton gives us Ice for use in the hot
months of the summer, and also fur-
nishes a good skating ground for those
who enjoy the winter pastime
Grand and magnificent objects OF
wonder are the icebergs, glaciers ana
ice-clad peaks! 1cebergs are large
mountains of ice floating in northern
seas. They have been known to reach
the toprnost pinnacle of 300 feet and
more above the sea level. How far be-
low the surface such icebergs reach
cannot be told, but as ships Keel
when af1oat Is many feet beneath the
seas level, 80 the bottom OF an i'm
mense iceberg must be many fatnoms
down The larger part OF an lceberg
is pure white, while the base is blue.
These giant wonders of winter were
formed long ago and you will presently
see what an iceberg really is and how
it is formed.
In certain sea near the Greenland
coast icebergs are very numerous
| There the great heavy swell dashes
| the loose ice against them with ire
mendous force, sometimes lifting a
snowy spray to the height Of 100 feet
and with noise like heavy thunder,
and when the balance is suddenly dis
turbed they tremble and roll about IN
| a wild manner Then myriads of birds,
| which have been roosting unseen On IT'S
CLASSY lodges, rise in the sunshine and
fy in circles round their resting place
until 1t becomes settled again.
A glacier Is an immense coating or
ice of unknown size which is frequently
found upon the broad bosom of Green
land. and which is ever on the move
SLOWLY. but very Straightforward the
| sea. And when it reaches the cliff, what
| happens? Well-a story Is related
| about a man who once went fishing
near the coast. High above him hung
| the great glazier, under which the fish,
| erman sat with his Esquirnau boatman.
Presently tick, tick, tick was heard by
| the fisherman, and the little Ecqufmau
Immediately made earnest signs that
| they must row further away from the
shore. And 1t was well they did, for
| they were but mile away when, with
| a loud noise like the crack of whip,
| a great white mass fell into the waters,
| and amid the commotion of the waves
rocked backward for more than an
hour before 1t settled and then floated
1 away, an iceberg!
1 A glacier, it Is said, extends unbrok-
| en- for so or so miles. A painful. death
| like stiffness reigns in this most dreary
| isle of desolation, excepting when an
occasional iceberg splits and falls from
these glaciers with a rumbling crash.
It takes the wave occasioned by the
| launch just seven minutes to travel IL
miles.
| Opposite a channel which pierces the
| Greenland coast seems to be the most
| remarkable place on the globe for the
| birth of icebergs; about ESQ of these
white monsters Of gigantic proportions
have been counted there at one time.
| They move In an endless procession
| down this channel in true glacial style.
| They are both q friend and foe to the
sailor, who sometimes seeks them for
] security. and at other times avoids