Hawaii Holomua, Volume I, Number 74, 14 December 1893 — Icebergs. [ARTICLE]

Icebergs.

I British ships homeward bonnd from San Francisco. from tbe west coast of Sonth America, or from Australasia by the way of Cape Horn, dming the past six or eight months have sighted an uneommon number of icebergs and iee coutinents, and in some instances have sntfered there from. The genesis of these wandering islets is veiy simple. ( They are shards and sp!inters frora the ice-floes of the Arctic 1 aud Antarctic regions. As a mle the movement is that of a glacier creeping frora the centra! heights to the shores aud falling into the | nnfrozen water. As it floats out to sea the lower margin, being 1 exposed to the action of the : is broken np into “pieces’’ j weighing perhaps 3.000,000 tons and presenting an infinite variety of shapes that are comparabie to nothing else in nature. These “p:eces” are carried to Iower latitudes by the polar curreuts and gradnally melt. The iee begins to break np abont Noyem ber, and mostly disappears before it reaches the latitude of* tbe Horn. But this last season seems to have been oue of exceptional severity; well nigh every new arrival at British, Coutinental, or North American harbors has had to report an en counter. In some instances the the escape from destruction has been nothing short of miracu!ous aud there is only too good reason ! to be.ieve that many tull ships | over and above the known have | boen destroyed. It is not easv ' to give an adeqnate notion of {he ( exteut of these bergs and the I damage tbeir aimless wanderings raay do. The realitv of the d nger eun on!y be discovered when you are hemraed around with blind and floating perils miles Iong and 600 or 1,000 feet high, or when yon are making for an ouly opening and the bergs are converging on you. Or one frisky monster turus turtle aud iashes at you with too-too playful tail. The iee melts rapidly nnder water, and every now and again there is a change in the position of the centre, and a conseqnent shifting into a new position of equilibriura. Sometimes, too, tbe. noise is terrifying enongh. The eaphiin of the “Loeh Torridon,” for instance, speaks of strange sounds in the iee. “Yon couid hear,” says the log of the “Cntty Sark,” “the sea breakingthrongh and over them, bnt could not see them until close on them. Sometimes yon conld hear reports like big guns aud tben rumbliūg like tbnnder. Sometiraes, as we have seen, a berg is dark to see. This is when the iee has brokon oft’ from the shore and is mixed with earth and rock, and when eontinual nndermining has shifted the eqnilibrinm, and bus cansed this mixe<l part to appear above the water level. It has happeneil that these black bergs have been mi?taken for is1ands. One ship a few montbs ago reported { the discovery of a new island ‘ | right in the neighborbood of the 1 j iee track, another still more receutly sighted a berg so closely resembling ierra rirma tbat its real natnre was only discovered by saiiing aIoDgside. Theae dark bergs are important agenta in geoIogicul distribntion. Regarding the magnificent ooloring of icebergs, especially thoee seen in Sonthern waters, we qnote *

from an artic!e ip the Gu : iforni*n. in whieh ihe wril«:r desertbin£ irj* vt>yage in the Ant»rc‘e says: “The genera! ground eolor un<ier ordio»ry Iight is a pale b!ue t <u whiea is embellished with |x%ra!!ei streaks of the purest cob.«.t l>' ■>-, and bright. poliīshrd wa?h !ine* fringed with icic!t~, whi!e th« crerasees &nd hoiIows sre •>!' : »e deepest sky-biue. No <rtsl a board was 'abie to apprv4ieb . representation of ;ts tut ;.?:!y.' \s a sct-x>ff to the excces.ve r.cfaues« and deptb »f thrs co!c>ring the s«'a at the foot of the bergs ;s of .t «! rk indigo, the effrot of cootrsst. But it is under the iulluenee of !<ght ai;d siiade of ci« ud sh d>w ai.d suuiight. and m the gtow «f ih« rising aud the setiiug auo that t!.e gorgeousne»s aud gl<>r' s »f these Tit»nic rta.ting erystais are to be seen. Und«r the aeowl {% pasori;g cloud the Urgs, as th« shadow, eclipsing the «unligat, creeps frum one to an:other, put «n in turn a manlie of the deepest hlaek, while their eompanioua glitter brilliant!y aruund tbern. As the shadow m«vts away the darkened iee breaks oul again ii.lo brightness aud beauty. In lue rich red sunsets icebvrgs Iying direct!y between the obs«.rver a;.d the illumiuated sky appeared r.a hlaek masses witb hard outlin>s; but those situated to r>ght aud I» ft of the sinking sun r flect d bjoa bis sp!endor in co!ors of red ai d golden yellow, of crini5‘>n au.l pink and clothed themselves iu l!»e brightest hues."— Cu>rt,>l i.i' nture.