Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-04
HQSkin Letter 81 s : Rsssa
CHARTING

case of icebergs presenting a flat wall
to the sound waves, and even then the
echo is observable at such short dis
lance that this warning is Of little or
no value.
Another tradition that has been shat
tered is that an iceberg chills the sur
rounding water and air. The facts do
no bear out this supposition. Once in
a while, if the wind is blowing from an
slightly cooler, but the water does not
appear to be effected at all, except so
close to the berg that nc ship could
reach the cooler water without practi-,
cal certainty of destruction.
Still another mariners belief touch
ing icebergs has been that birds, flying
about and roOsting on the ice, disclose
the presence of bergs by their cries,
but the ice patrol has blown up this
tradition along with the rest. 1t has
been found to be without any founda-
ton. Many hergs have been located
without any birds aboht them at all.
Give Bargs Wide Berth
Collision with icebergs is not the only
danger to shipping. Another is
from movement Of the great mass Of
ice in the water. As the berg drifts
farther south. the air and water become
increasingly warm, the ice is melted in
various ways. A current of warm wa
ter will melt away the under part of
an iceberg SO that the disturbance of
the eenter of gravity will cause the
whole thing TO roll or turn over. An
ordinary ship, if close to an iceberg
when this happened. would certainly
run grave risk of being swamped.
Sometimes. due to the attrition of warm
u-afnro on1 thu ctrn'c rQvc On incharv
will split into two or. more pieces, with
terrific disturbances of the surface of
the sea for long distances in every .di-
rectiOn.
The speed with which an iceberg
moves in the water in nearly every case
is due to the current in which it is
moving along, and it moves no faster
than this current. Occasionally
though, the exposed top of the berg
may have surfaces which readily catch
the wind and thus it nay sail along, get
ting farther than the ordinary iceberg
does before it is melted and made
harmless.
Luckily for shipping, the great ma
jority of icebergs after drifting south
ward for 1900 or 2,000 miles, strand
rador. 1t is the small number that
escapes this fate that continues south
ward until they reach the steamer
paths of the North Atlantic, a distance
of from $500 to 5000 miles from the
mouth of the glacier where they orig
mated.
In the late summer. and throughout
the autumn and winter, the steamer
lanes are free from the menaces of ice
bergs. Then the far north has frozen
up tight again, anu the bergs do not
break away from the glaciers. The
areas in which icebergs may be ex-
pected in the spring and early summer
months are now fairly well known to
the coast guard, but sometimes one of
the bergs with sail-like surfaces will
be found blown Iar out of this area be-
fore being destroyed by the elements.
An iceberg often is a thing of beauty.
The rays of the sun, reflected from
the thousands of faces of ice, and shin
ing through the natural prisms formed
are a spectacle well worth seeing.
Icebergs in the moonlight. once seen
will never be forgotten as examples of
ghost-like beauty.