Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1907-09-15

tht SIuuH u lSldnuS. n Ety
catches pinnacle and peak, piercing
The mist and lighting the vast mas
ses with shimmcring hucs-sky blue
and emerald dove gray and faint
rose. Cascades flow down the thaw-
ing slopes. ana slow green rollers
break on mighty buttreses with gentle
foam and rising spray.
One perg fellows another Is stately
march and form fantastic Here is
ruined Norman cathedral, choiaed
and lowered. Next follows an Arab
tent, pitched in limitless sea of green.
Now mosque of green marble with
diamond domes and minarets. Chinese
pagodas and Nile pyramids too; with
gteat battleships, sculptured by the
Sun out of Grecnland's ice cap OF half
million square miles.
'Beautifuli' Cry the women, waving
handkerchiefs and turning to the Cap
tain for information. He smiles Il
little, recalling last nights terrible
Vigil sleeping with no thought of the
colossal spectois of the sea. Such
pondcrOus silent foes from the north
true Thor hammers. weighing n bill
lion tons. before whose impact mans
mighticst fabric is only an egg shell;
cratic In movement too, travelling
south into line even with Southern
Spain; and likely to split and ex.
plode. casting up waves that would en-
gulf the greatest ship; stranding and
blocking harbors. because seven.
eighths of their towering height is
beneath the sea.
And here is sinister peril A YES.
sci may seem TO he clearing the mon
ster. when suddenly n 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 monstrous bcrgs on an oceanic
river two thousand miles long and n
hlndicd and ninety widc-a gir1le
oil death to thousand ships, gem.
med and studded with crystal isles of
destruction.
Where They Came From.
Whence have they come? They
are the broken off ends of long snu.
Gus glaciers that have worked their
way down from Gieenlands icy noun
tans. Most North Atlantic bercs slim
INTO the sea from the north part of
western Gscenand. and enter Baffin
Bay above Disko Island When they
put to sea ii mdy be for 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 day, and therefore in one
year will throw off into the sea the
uncomfortable quantity OF three hun
dred thousand million cubic feet OF
ice. And on the Danish part of Green
lands west coast there are twenty
fiords that give birth to bergs from
an Ice bound country one hundred
and twenty thousand square miles In
extent Thus one is not surprised to
near OF towering ice island stranded
In Melville Bay. weighing two thou
sand million tons. Think of anything
that floats at all being aground in wa
ter more than half a mile deep. On
its great fields and precipitous slopes
were many polar bears and thousands
OF seals which had taken passage, so
to speak, foH Southern Labrador
These bergs, in procession or in
lonely grandeur, are the seas worst
terror; and so fai, human science has
devised no means of detecting them
In fog and dakness. The Newfound-
land fishermen say they are able to
smell hcrgs, thereby saving Graf.
and life alike. What they moan OF
course, Is that the berg's approach is
marked by sudden cooling of The air
But there Is fame and fortune in store
for the man who will invent some
continuance to give timely warning
Of the proximity of this danger, which
Is the most terrible known to naviga-
ton. No other agency can overwhelm
the modern steel built liner with her
many water tight bulkheads. She dc.
fics the most furious storm: the 5isl;
of fire is inconsiderablc; and even
after collision one or other OF the
participants may limp into port. But
imagine n twenty thousand-ton ocean
flyer hurting her vast bulk Mt twenty
knots an hour against the mighty ice
ramparts 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 precipices. and
from a height of seven hundred feet
crash thousands of tons of ice, utter
ly overwhelming the grandest ship
that ever left port
All ships report the lergs they have
seen, and the United States hydrogra.
phic office gives news OF them in its
Bulletin" In one week of April
more than hundred steamers touch
ing at American ports reported sight.
ing one or more of these white ter
rors on the passage. In London too
The Shipping Gazette" publishes pre-
else details of such bergs rs are
thrown across the thick of naviga-
ton; and diagrams are always posted
In the Offices of the Shipmasters' So
ciety.
The Worst Havoc.
When the billiards. and fogs OBJ.
scure the seas face in winter and
spring the iccbcig works its worst