Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-10-19

are those of Greenland and some In thei
antarctic regions. In Alaska, too. there,
are a few glaciers which produce fairly
large icebergs. The Muir glacier. for ex-'
ample, terminates in a pal.sade twenty
five miles wide and extends to a height OF
300 feet above the sea. Some N Green
land are fifty or more miles wide at the
! sea and nave a thickness of 1000 and 5000
feet.
Like Artillery Crashes.
Except for occasional cracking open of a
crevasse the slow, creeping movement of a
glacier in its course to the sea Is carried,
on in deathlike silence, which is very m
press!ve. But at its termination all is
noise and confusion. Undermined by the,
waves, enormous masses of ice are torn off
and fall into the sea with a roar that Isl
deafening. For a moment the ice disap-,
pears from view in a shower of spray, thenl
is rises slowly, majestically, a huge fioat-t
Ing mass of indigo blue ice, possibly a milel
or two in length. 4,
At sorne places icebergS are wrenchedl
from their glacier at intervals of a few
minutes, so that the rumbling thunder of
one iceberg has barely died away before
the crash of another is heard. IL the sea-,
son be late the berg Will be by,
foe Ice before it moves far on its southern
jorney. In this it may be held a virtual
prisoner through the long arctic night, butt
even while fettered by the ice 1t movesi
slowly southwark, though very slowly, be-
cause the zee continually jams and pens
it In or is hurled by the wind and waves
against the iceberg, driving it back
against the current. In the spring, how
ever, when it has drifted far enough to tho
south to rid itself of the impending foe
ice, it may be truly said that It has started
on its last long journey.
Shows Fantastic Shapes.
AS it moves along, carried by the cold,
Labrador current, the iceberg suffers Sc
yerely from the heat of the sun. Streams
of water pour down the sides, furrowing it
into the most fantastic shapes. Starting
off from the glacier as a huge, cubical'
mass of ice, the berg Is soon marvelouslyl
chiseled into lofty peaks, deep gulches,,
overhanging cliffs and mighty caverns,
strung with ~icicles, a marvellous study in
blue and white. Some Of these peaks reach
up hundreds Of feet in the air. If the
chiseling Is not uniformly done the Ice
berg may lose its balance and then, with
a terrific plunge, it will topple over and
possibly turn turtle, sending out a wave
that mariners may we'll stand in fear Of.
But little more than a tenth of the ice
berg shows above board. Nine-tenths Of
it are submerged. This doesn't mean that
because a finger of the berg reaches up
to a height Of 800 feet the submerged por-
ton reaches a depth of 1900 feet, but it
does mean that the weight of the SUBJ
merged ice Is eight or nine times that OF
the visible portion. The base Of the ice
berg is almost always broader than the
top, but for all that icebergs sometimes
run aground in water 1,500 or 1000 feet
deep.
One which was seen near Melville bay,
Greenland, was aground in water fully
half a mile deep. 1t was estimated that
this iceberg weighed 1909, 600 tons. Much
larger icebergs are split off from the gla-
cierS OF the antarctic circle. In 1893 one
was reported that measured /, 200 feet high.
This was received with ridicule at first,
but soon iceberg after iceberg was report
ed, all exceeding 1000 feet and one reach
ing up to 1900 feet above sea level.
Immense Dimensions.
1t would take four buildings placed one
on top of the other to overtop this height,
while the underwater depth of the berg,
must be left to the imagination. One anti
arctic iceberg was found to be ten miles
long. Owing to their greater dimensions,
these southern bergs drift much nearer the
tropics than do our bergs of the north.
Occasionally an iceberg is reported that
shows signs of life aboard. Only last year
passengers on one of the transatlantic
steamers saw several half-starved polar
bears restlessly roaming about on their
ever-shrinking craft. Once in a while a
full-masted ship completely incased in ice
is borne along by one of these grim mon
sters.
Twelve years ago a vessel in the south
Atlantic reported seeing a rude hut on one
Of these bergs with a number of men
stretched out on the ice about 1t, all APP
parently dead. 1t was nearly dark when
the discovery was made and a rising gale
prevented any immediate attempt at res
cue. BY daylight the iceberg had disap-
peared and nothing more was ever heardl
of ii. Several instances are known of men
who a had to abandon vessels crushed
in the ice and take to a foeberg or al. ice
berg, from which they were rescued only
after months of hardships.
Danger to Vessels.
The iceberg season on the north Atlantic
has just begun and will stretch well on in
to the summer. Already some of these
huge bergs have been reported and only
the other day we learned of a vessel that
was wrecked by an iceberg that lay in it's
course.
But the danger OF such an encounter is
really very remote. transatlantic steam
ers take a southerly course at this time.
of the year and avoid all but the largest
of the icebergs, thus reducing to a mini
mum the chances of an encounter.
1t used to be thought that mariners
could detect the presence of ar iceberg
anywhere within a radius of twenty-five to
fifty miles by a marked drop in the tenn
perature of the air or water. For this
reason captains of ocean-going vessels
were instructed to watch the thermometer
day and night while a ship was in the
danger zone and in case Of a sudden drop
of the mercury to stop the vessel immedi-
ately. 1T is probable that the Wise old
salts entirely ignore these instructions and
trusted to a sharp watch for the iceberg
itself.