The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1915-02-04

Along the shore from headland to
headland, the bays and inlets often
remain solid for years, almost in
variably throughout the winter; but
in Baffin Bay, Davis Strait, open
water can be found at intervals all
the year around. Ice becomes raft
ed in a variety of ways. If two fields
are adrift, the one to windward will
drift down on the one to leeward;
the one which is rougher on its sur
face gives the wind a better hold
and drifts the faster; fields may be
impelled towards each other by
winds from contrary directions. Ice
that is secure to the shore is RATED
on its seaward edge from contact
with that which is adrift. Fields in
drifting often have turning motion,
which is caused by contrary cur
rents. or one variable in strength at
different points, or by field coming
in contact with another field afoat
or ashore. This rotary motion is
especially dangerous when vessel
finds itself between two fields. A
heavy gale will break up the strong
est fields at times and cause them to
raft and form hummocks. Small
fragments of bergs find themselves
mingled with Arctic fields and be-
come frozen fast. These, when liber-
ated to the southward, are called
GROWERS, and form low, dark, indigo
colored masses, which are just awash
and rounded like a whales back.
They are very dangerous when in
ice fields which have become loose
enough for a vessel to pass through,
and should always be looked for;
they can he seen apparently rising
and sinking as the sea breaks over
them. During the spring and sum-
mer months the bergs, aided by a
rise of temperature. so cut up and
weaken the ice fields that much ice
is loosened and begins drifting out
of the Arctic Basin. This is joined
by that brought from the waters of
Spitzbergen by the East Greenland
Current, near the sixtythird paral-
lei, whence it flows down the east
ern coast of North America, reach
ing Cape Chidley about October or
November. BY this time the re-
naming ice in the Arctic is being
cemented into solid fields, while the
ice cap is being daily extended to
the southwark.
As fast as fields are detached the
open water freezes, and these mass
es are forced to the southwark and
cannot rejoin the solid pack. With
a westerly wind, the ice formed in
Hudson Strait is forced out and joins
the Arctic ice, differing from it,only
in being little lighter The string
of ice along the coast of Labrador
extends from headland to headland,
including the outlying island. and
starting from the heads of the bays,
works it's way out to seaward, form
ing by the middle of December an
impossible barrier to the shore. which
will probably not be permanently
broken until the middle of April.
This ice varies in thickness from 12
feet at the northern extreme to 3 or
4 feet at the southern. During the
entire winter the Arctic drift is find
ing it's way down the coast. and is
continually being reinforced by fields
broken from the Labrador ice. These
continue to the southward in the
Labrador Current at the rate of
about ten miles day, reaching Belle
Isle between the middle of January
and the middle of February.
The best example on record of a
continuous drift from the Arctic is
that of Capt. Tyson. On Octobe
IA, 1871, he and a party of nineteen
others were separated from the Uni.
ted States surveying ship Polaris in
in latitude II or IS degrees north.
just south of Littletown Island, and,
being unable to gain the ship, re-
NAMED on the flow and accomplish
ed one of the most wonderful jour-
neys. After drift of over 1900
miles. fraught with danger from be-
ginning to end, they were picked up
about six months later, April 30,
1872. by the Tigress, a sealing schoon-
er out of Newfoundland. pear the
Strait of Belle Isle and landed safe
ly in port. The advancing ice will
have reached, in the month of April,
| the northern limit of the Gulf
Stream; and, having spread itself
along this line both east and west
of the fiftieth meridian, it enters the
final stage of disintegration, and
rapidly disappears. The proximity
of ice is indicated by the following
4 =