Semi-weekly herald., 1907-11-25
The WHITE TERROR OF THE SEA.

group OF crystal islands A ray catch
es pinnacle and peak. piercing tn,
mist and lighting the vast masses witt
shimmering hues-sky blue and emer
aid. dove gray and faint rose. Cas-
cades flow down the thawing slopes
and slow green rollers break on might,
battresses with gentle foam and risinl
spray.
One berg follows another in state
~ march and form fantastic Here IL
ruined Norman cathedral choire6
aud lowered. Next follows an Arat
tent. pitched in limitless sea of green
Now mosque Of green marble with
diamond domes and minarets. Chi
nese pasodas and Nile pyramids too
with great battle ships. sculptured by
the sun out OF Greenland ice car
o. half million square miles.
Beautiful" cry the women. waving
hapdkerchiefs and turning to the cap.
tain for information. He smiles a lit.
tie. recalling last nights terrible vigil
III dense fog when these careless hun.
WV S'S'pihE Will 10 lTOuHNl
of the colossal specters of the sea.
Such ponderous silent foes from the
nofth--true Thor hammers, weighing
a billion tons, before whose impact
mans mightiest fabric is only an egg
Shell; erratic in movement too, trav-
cling south into line evea with south
ern Spain; and likely to split and
explode, casting up waves that would
engulf the greatest ship; stranding
and blocking harbors, because seven
eighths of their towering height is be-
meath the sea,
And here is sinister peril. A vessel
may seem to be- clearing the monster,
when suddenly submarine spur will
tear great hole in her and drag
her within reach OF topping ice masses
weighing thousands OF tons. Down the
Labrador current come these mon.
strous bergs on an oceanic river two
thousand miles long and hundred
and ninety wide--a girdle of death to
q thousand ships, gemmed and studded
with crystal isles of destruction.
Whence have they come They are
the broken on ends OF the long sin
uous glaciers that have worked their
way down from Greenland's icy moua.
fains. Most north Atlantic bergs slip
into the sea from the north part OF
western Greenland and enter Raffa
bay above Disko island When they
put TO sea II may be for a journey of
twenty five hundred miles.
One ice field poured down by the
mountains into Disko bay is one thou
sand feet thick and eighteen thousand
broad. II flows forty-seven feet IN a
day. and therefore in one year will |
viii throw of into the sea the in
conceivably quantity of three hundred
thousand million cubic feet OF ice And
on the Danish part of Creenlald's |
west coast there are twssty fords |
MAT give birth to bergs from an ice
bound country enc hundred and twenty
GtcnSand square miles in extent Thus
one is aot surprised to hear OF tower
ing ice island stranded in Melville bay,
weighing two thousand million tons. |
Think OF anything that floats at all |
being aground in water more than half |
precipftous slopes were many polar
bears and thousands of seals which |
had taken passage. so TO speak for
southern Labrador
HhaSa haroG in i,,l
lonely grandeur. are the seas worst |
terror: and so far human science has |
devised no means of detecting them |
in fog and darkness. The Newfound- |
land fishermen say them are able to |
smell" berEs, thereby saving craft /!
and life alike. What they mean. of |
course. is that the berg's approach is |
marked by sudden cooling OF the air. |
Bnt there is fame and fortune in store |
for the man who will invent some con
uivance to give timely warning OF the |
proximity OF this danger which is the |
most terrible known to navigation. |
No other agency can cyerwhelm the |
modern steel built liner with her
many water tight bulliheads. She de- |
fes the most furious storm; the risk |
OF flre is inconsideral e: and even aft |
er collision one or other o the partici- |
pants may limp into port. But imag-
iae a twenty thous nd ton ocean flyer
hurting her vast bulk at twenty knots
an hour against the mighty ice ram
parts looming through the fog athwart
her racing bows The first impact is |
bad enough: but insidious sun action |
and corrosive salt water have rotted
The lofty precipces. and from height
oi seven hundred feet crash thousands
ut tons OF Ice, utterly overwhelming
the grandest ship that ever left port.
All ships report the bergs they have
seen. and the United States hydro
graphic offices gives news OF them in
its Bulletin In one week OF April
more than hundred steamers touch.
log ut American ports reported sight
ing one or more of these white terrors
on the passage. In London too the