“Since my arrival I have seen the admirable remarks of Mr. J. W. Tayler
upon the southern coast of Greenland, the results of his experience
during seven years residence there. His opinions must be most
satisfactory to you, and I am sure that all who are interested in the
work must be grateful to him for having so freely given them.
“I perfectly coincide with his views with regard to the size of the
icebergs frequenting the above coast and accompanying the Spitzbergen
drift ice; and as this bears upon my own opinion that no iceberg
will ground in the channel of Julianshaab Fiord, I think I may here
explain my reasons for this statement. Having navigated the entire west
coast of Greenland and into all the principal settlements, and having
experienced a whole winters drift in the ice, through Baffin’s Sea and
Davis’ Strait, I have had occasion to remark and to gather all possible
information upon the ice movements.
“Around the coast of Greenland, westward of Cape Farewell, there
are two distinct descriptions, or rather kinds, of drift ice ever
approaching but never meeting together. The first is the ice formed
during the winter on the vast area of Baffin’s Sea and the different
channels from the Polar Seas westward of Greenland. This ice, called by
the Greenlanders _the west ice_, often blocks up throughout the year
the upper part of Melville Bay, and drifts constantly throughout the
winter and early spring to the southward through Davis’ Strait into
the Atlantic. It seldom comes in contact with the coast of Greenland
below the parallel of Disko, _and there is always an open sea between
it and Greenland as far up as Holsteinberg throughout the winter_. The
second is the Spitzbergen called also the ‘store ice,’ which as has
been shown comes down the east coast of Greenland around Cape Farewell,
and is carried by the current up the west coast at times even to the
Arctic Circle, but by which time it is usually pretty much broken up,
and if not entirely dispersed, the last remnants are supposed to return
southward by Davis’ Strait to the Atlantic--so near these two great ice
streams approach that vessels bound to the colonies have in the early
spring passed up Davis’ Strait with the west ice and the Spitzbergen
ice on either hand. But as there are two kinds of oceanic ice, so also
are there two distinct classes of icebergs, namely, the bergs from the
stupendous glaciers far up the west coast of Greenland, and especially
in Melville Bay:--these bergs attain an astonishing magnitude, but
like the west ice which they accompany, or outsail, they do not come
upon the west coast of Greenland below the same parallel, although in
exceptional seasons of violent gales such as the last, they may be
blown in upon the land a little more to the southward; and I saw some
of these _ice islands_ last October aground, upon and near Tallert
Bank northward of Frederickshaab. The other icebergs are those which
accompany the Spitzbergen ice, and may be said to follow its movements.
They are launched from the glaciers far up the east coast of Greenland,
and from those in the island of Spitzbergen, and besides being
originally far less in their dimensions they are exposed during their
long passage southward to the warmer Atlantic winds and heavy swells,
and are proportionally reduced before their arrival at Cape Farewell.
The bergs from the southern glaciers of Greenland are but small, and
need scarcely to be taken into consideration, for as they must come out
from the heads of the fiords, they surely would not take the ground in
again entering the _channel_ of the deepest fiords.
“With regard to the flotation of ice, it has been calculated that
seven-eighths of a cubical mass of ice will be immersed, but icebergs
being very irregular in their formation and having usually very peaked
and angular summits, whilst below the water they are smooth, rounded,
and most frequently widened out. I think that icebergs are not found
that draw more water than the proportion of six feet below to one foot
of perpendicular height above the water. Therefore in 150 fathoms of
water (the very least found in the entrance to Julianshaab Fiord) an
iceberg of an elevation above the water of 150 feet, or having an
entire perpendicular height of 1050 feet, will there be suspended above
the ground, and such bergs are not to be met with in that place.”