The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-04-20
THE ORIGIN OF ICEBERGs
They Are Parts of Glaciers From the
Polar Regions.

Through photographs published by
returning polar explorers, people are
familiar with the appearance Of the
seaboard of the great Arctic and Ant
arctic continents. They have seen re-
produced, pictures of the ships that
have reached these distant regions and
have doubtless noticed how small and
puny they seem beside the great ice
cliffs that guard the approach to these
frigid lands, as these tower above the
vessels, making them appear as toys.
1t is from these cliffs that the ice
bergs come.
The many American tourists, who
have "done" Switzerland, have seen
the glaciers there and have marveled
at their size and grandeur. They
are as nothing beside the monster gla-
cfers of these regions to the far
North and South. In countries such
as Switzerland the glaciers extend into
the lower valleys where they melt into
the rivers and lakes, but in the colder
chimes it is different and the glaciers
reach the sea. Eventually the COM
b1ned pressure from behind and the
upward lift of the water break off that
part farthest forward. These enor-
ing greatly in size, become the ice
bergs. They float away and travel
southwark. many miles, dwindling as
they go. So great are some of them
that it takes long to melt them, and
in the case of those formed in the Arc
tic regions, they may go hundreds of
miles southwark before the heat of the
sun and of the water suffices to dis
integrate them.
There is a constant stream of bergs
floating from the north to the south.
They may get but a little way before
the coming winter, when they are
held by the freezing of the sea, which
the coming of spring, when they are
freed with the foe. This accounts
for the number of icebergs that are
seen surrounded by the broad fiat ice
foes. A foe is simply a detached
portion, more or less large, of the froz-
en- srrface of the polar sea and may
vary from a few yards to several
miles in extent.
Icebergs have been seen as far south
| as north latitude 35 degrees, the lati-
| tude of Richmond, Va, and Lisbon,
Portugal, but that is the record. The
normal limit for bergs is 40 degrees
The sinking of the Titanic occurred in
| latitude Az degrees. This is very
near the normal limit, but the gigantic
size of the bergs encountered there
leads to the conclusion that another
record will be established this year
as none of such size has hitherto been
| seen so far south
L LIE WSiSHl VI SOII1c VI lHcS6 UGTSS
has been estimated and a berg of 15t
millions of tons is not uncommon
Such as are now said to be in the
northern Atlantic may weigh many
| times this. Many of these f1oatiAe
''ice mountains have been observed
| whose height exceeded $50 feet. Wher
it is realized that only one-ninth OF
| the mass shows above water, their
| great size may be imagined.
AS the ice below the water melts
more quickly than that above, the
| turning over of an iceberg is not infre.
| quent. In fact, such a turning has
often been seen. AT such a time 6
| ship approaching near is in great dan
ger as it is next to impossible to es-
| innate the extent of the submerged
portion, and there is no warning OF
| the coming movement