WONDERFUL SIGHTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11658, 13 June 1912, Page 2

WONDERFUL SIGHTS.

ICEBERGS IX THE NORTH ATLANTIC. The icebergs seen in the North Atlantic bv ships passing to and from the United States and Canada, represent the wastage from the glaciers of Greenland. There is found one of the very largest glaciers in the world, the Humboldt glacier, discovered by Dr E. K. Kane only as late as 1853. It is 60 miles in length, and has a perpendicular face of 300 feet. How many icebergs are sent on their career through the ocean by this glacier it is impossible to say, though several Arctic explorers declare that the Humboldt is responsible every year for at least half a million icebergs. The bergs from Greenland are carried down toward the middle of the Atlantic by the Labrador current. They travel right down the coast of Labrador, passing Newfoundland, until they reach the warm -wateTs of the Gulf Stream, when they disappear —melting completely away. It is only the largest bergs that reach the middle of the Atlantic before they disappear. On one occasion a berg 100 feet in height and nearly 200 feet in depth was found in latitude 39deg. 40min.. or nearly in a line with Southern Spain. Generally speaking, icebergs travel at the rate of three to five miles an hour. They are carried forward entirely by the strength of the. current. The distance they cover is enormous. Thousands do not get further than the coast of Labrador, where they become stranded. As they have come from the Greenland glaciers they have then covered at least 1800 miles, while those that reach the warmer waters of the Atlantic make journeys of from 2500 to 3000 miles. Steamers travelling northward from St. John's are often in view of bergs all day, passing an endless procession of fantastic and beautiful shapes. As many as 50 or 60 bergs are sometimes in view at one time.

The captains of those vessels often witness a wonderful sight. All along the coast of Labrador there is what is termed sheet-ice—that is. miles of stationary ice. caused by ice-floes having frozen solid over open water, and varying from 10 to loft in thickness. Down through the centre of this frozen field will crash a. mighty iceberg, tearing along at a speed of three miles an hour, right through the ice, so strong is the current that is carrying it forward. Alter it has passed steamers will make their way into the channel and sail along: it. Instances have happened, indeed, in which even sailing vessels have followed in an iceberg's wake, and St. Ncholas printed, years ago, an incident of a Norwegian bargue that was actually towed for some distance bv a berg. "The captain told the helmsman to run right in behind the monster, and then, going as close to the great ice .mountain as he dared, he ordered the crew to lower a boat and take a long rope and hitch on to it. This they did. makine- -fast to a low pinnacle or foothill. Then sail was shortened to living lib and spanker, just enough to keep her steady and take some strain off the rope; and 10. the ship was towing kindly in the wake of the berg, while all hands waited developments. "They had not long to wait. Steadily and surely the ice mountain bore down on the icefield. There came a great crash, and a little shiver, of the berg that could he felt, on the tow-line. Then followed a mighty upheaval of the edge of the floe as the berg ploughed into and tossed or shoved the masses of ice aside. When clear water was readied the rope was cast off, and all sail set to get awny." f