Year: 1869

A correspondent of the New York Herald, with
DR.. Hayes exploring party, described an enor-
nous glacier in South Greenland. The sea front
of the glacier is more than a mile and a-half in
extent, the centre projecting in circular form
into the bay, presenting nearly perpendicular
wall from the waters edge of two hundred feet
in height, and extending back many miles into
the interior. The party spent several days in ex-
ploring and taking Photographic views of the
glacier their ship, the Panther, being anchored
in a safe harbor near by. While engaged in this
work, July 22d, they were favored with dis
play seldom witnessed by visitors to Greenland
namely, the discharge of large iceberg from
the glacier The scene is thns described by the
correspondent:


orally given by the glacier previous to heavy
discharge, and all eyes were Immediately turned
towards it, but, strange to say, no disruption ap-
peared to be in progress. One of the highest
peaks about FIVE hundred feet back from the
water, had disappeared, however, and We con-
cluded that its falling into one of the deep crew
ices made the noise just heard but we scarcely
had time to comment upon the circumstance
when we heard another roar like thousand long
continued, distant thunders, seeming to come,
like deep groan, from the heart of the glacier
in its agony of travail. In few seconds the
water came boiling up from the bottom in front
of the glacier like mighty caldron, into which
great masses of ice began to fall, which, as they
plunged, sank and rose again, whirling around
one after the other, in erratic motion, gave in
creased power to the illustration that they we're


in the midst of a seething pot. Meanwhile the
roaring continued, and in a few seconds more .
section of the glaciers front, about three hun
dred yards in extent and half that distance in
depth, in motion, swaying backward and
forward with gentle motion at 6rst and then,
with an increased laundering, plunged bodily
into the sea- The whole mass was at once sub
merged, but soon reappeared, rushing up until
its summit at least two hundred feet above
the waters edge, while from its rugged sides
were pouring thousand cascades and streams,
which, combined with the waving motion of The
mass, gave it the appearance cf some mighty
sea monster shaking his shaggy head in sport.
The swell caused by this avalanche was trefneu-
dous, seriously endangering the ship, though
she was a mile away from it, and breaking COM
pletey over rocks from twenty TO thirty feet
high. 1t was more than an hour before this de-
| tached berg settled down to anything like quiet
| ness, being then about 9 hundred feet hish


But this did not last long, for from some un-
known cause it broke into three large fragments,
which foated away, with their highest peaks
from fifty to seventy five feet high, while the
whole surface of the ford was covered with in
Vulnerable fragments, of all shapes and sizes,
from few pounds to few hundred tons in
| weight. We suppose that the fall of the high
pinnacle referred to (Which may have been q
| thousand tons or more in weight) gave q shock
that split off this huge mass, the disruption of
which we viewed from an elevated position. and
| though imperfectly described here it was a scene
| to be impressed on our memories and will mot
soon be forgotten"