AN ACCOUNT OF THE GREENLAND OR POLAR ICE.
Of the inanimate productions of the Polar Seas, none perhaps excite
so much interest and astonishment in a stranger as the ice in its
great abundance and variety. The stupendous masses known by the name
of icelands or icebergs, common to Davis’s Strait, and sometimes
met with in the Spitzbergen Sea, from their height, various forms,
and the depth of water in which they ground, are calculated to
strike the beholder with wonder; yet the prodigious sheets of ice,
called ice-fields, more peculiar to the Spitzbergen Sea, are not
less astonishing. Their deficiency in elevation is sufficiently
compensated by their amazing extent of surface. Some of them have
been observed extending many leagues in length, and covering an area
of several hundreds of square miles, each consisting of a single
sheet of ice, having its surface raised in general four or six feet
above the level of the water, and its base depressed to the depth of
ten to twenty feet beneath.
The ice in general is designated by a variety of appellations,
distinguishing it according to the size or shape of the pieces,
their number or form of aggregation, thickness, transparency,
situation, etc. As the different denominations of ice will be
frequently referred to in the course of this work, it may be useful
to give definitions of the terms in use among the whale-fishers for
distinguishing them.
1. An _iceberg_, or ice-mountain, is a large insulated peak of
floating ice, or a glacier, occupying a ravine or valley, generally
opening towards the sea in an arctic country.
2. A _field_ is a sheet of ice, so extensive that its limits cannot
be discerned from the ship’s mast-head.
3. A _floe_ is similar to a field, but smaller, inasmuch as its
extent _can_ be seen. This term, however, is seldom applied to pieces
of ice of less diameter than half-a-mile or a mile.
4. _Drift-ice_ consists of pieces less than floes, of various shapes
and magnitudes.
5. _Brash-ice_ is still smaller than drift-ice, and may be considered
as the wreck of other kinds of ice.
6. _Bay-ice_ is that which is newly-formed on the sea, and consists
of two kinds, common bay-ice and _pancake_-ice; the former occurring
in smooth extensive sheets, and the latter in small circular pieces,
with raised edges.
7. _Sludge_ consists of a stratum of detached ice crystals, or of
snow, or of the smaller fragments of brash-ice, floating on the
surface of the sea.
8. A _hummock_ is a protuberance raised upon any plane of ice above
the common level. It is frequently produced by pressure, where one
piece is squeezed upon another, often set upon its edge, and in
that position cemented by the frost. Hummocks are likewise formed
by pieces of ice mutually crushing each other, the wreck being
heaped upon one or both of them. To hummocks, principally, the ice
is indebted for its variety of fanciful shapes, and its picturesque
appearance. They occur in great numbers in heavy packs, on the edges,
and occasionally in the middle of fields and floes, where they often
attain the height of thirty feet or upwards.
9. A _calf_ is a portion of ice which has been depressed by the same
means as a hummock is elevated. It is kept down by some larger mass,
from beneath which it shows itself on one side.
10. A _tongue_ is a point of ice projecting nearly horizontally from
a part that is under water. Ships have sometimes run aground upon
tongues of ice.
11. A _pack_ is a body of drift-ice, of such magnitude that its
extent is not discernible. A pack is _open_ when the pieces of ice,
though very near each other, do not generally touch, or _close_ when
the pieces are in complete contact.
12. A _patch_ is a collection of drift or bay-ice, of a circular
or polygonal form. In point of magnitude, a pack corresponds with a
field, and a patch with a floe.
13. A _stream_ is an oblong collection of drift or bay-ice, the
pieces of which are continuous. It is called a _sea-stream_ when it
is exposed on one side to the ocean, and affords shelter from the sea
to whatever is within it.
14. _Open-ice_, or _sailing-ice_, is where the pieces are so separate
as to admit of a ship sailing conveniently among them.
15. _Heavy_ and _light_ are terms attached to ice, distinguishable of
its thickness.
16. _Land-ice_ consists of drift-ice attached to the shore; or
drift-ice which, by being covered with mud or gravel, appears to have
recently been in contact with the shore; or the flat ice resting on
the land, not having the appearance or elevation of icebergs.
17. A _bight_ is a bay in the outline of the ice.
18. A _lane_ or _vein_ is a narrow channel of water in packs or other
large collections of ice.
When the sea freezes, the greatest part of the salt it contains is
deposited, and the frozen mass, however spongy, probably contains no
salt but what is natural to the sea-water filling its pores. Hence
the generality of ice, when dissolved, affords fresh water. As,
however, the ice frozen altogether from sea-water does not appear
so solid and transparent as that procured from snow or rain water,
the whale-fishers distinguish it into two kinds, accordingly as it
affords water that is potable, or the contrary, as it appears to have
been the product of fresh or salt water.
What is considered as salt-water-ice appears blackish in the water,
but in the air is of a white or grey colour, porous, and in a great
measure opaque, (except when in very thin pieces,) yet transmits the
rays of light with a blue or blueish green shade. When dissolved,
it produces water sometimes perfectly fresh, and at others saltish.
This depends, in a great measure, on the situation from whence it is
taken; such parts as are raised above the surface of the sea, in the
form of hummocks, or which, though below the surface, have been long
frozen, appear to gain solidity, and are commonly _fresh_; whilst
those pieces taken out of the sea, that have been recently frozen,
are somewhat salt.
Fresh-water-ice of the sailors is distinguished by its black
appearance when floating in small pieces in the sea, and by its
transparency when removed into the air. Fresh-water-ice is fragile,
but hard; the edges of a fractured part are frequently so keen as to
inflict a wound like glass. The most transparent pieces are capable
of concentrating the rays of the sun, so as to produce a considerable
intensity of heat. With a lump of ice, of by no means regular
convexity, I have frequently burned wood, fired gunpowder, incited
lead, and lit the sailors’ pipes, to their great astonishment, all
of whom, who could procure the needful articles, eagerly flocked
around me, for the satisfaction of smoking a pipe ignited by such
extraordinary means. Their astonishment was increased by observing
that the ice remained firm and pellucid, while the solar rays
emerging from it were so hot, that the hand could not be kept longer
in the focus than for the space of a few seconds. In the formation
of these lenses, I roughed them out with a small axe, and then
scraped them with a knife, polishing them merely by the warmth of
the hand, supporting them during the operation in a woollen glove.
I once procured a piece of the purest ice, so large that a lens of
sixteen inches diameter was obtained out of it; unhappily, however,
the sun became obscured before it was completed, and never made its
appearance again for a fortnight, during which time, the air being
mild, the lens was spoiled.
All young ice, such as bay-ice and light-ice, which form a
considerable part of drift and pack-ice in general, is considered by
Greenland sailors salt-water-ice; while fields, floes, bergs, and
heavy-ice, chiefly consist of fresh-water-ice. Brash-ice likewise
affords fine specimens of the latter, which, when taken out of the
sea, are always found crowded on the surface with sharp points and
conchoidal excavations.
Ice, when rapidly dissolved, continues solid as long as any remains,
but, when exposed to the air, at a temperature of only two or three
degrees above the freezing point, its solution is effected in a very
peculiar manner. Thus, a large lump of fresh-water-ice, when acted on
by such a process, if placed in the plane of its formation, resolves
itself into considerable columns of a prismatic appearance. These
columns are situated in a perpendicular position, almost entirely
detached, so that when a blow is struck with an axe, the whole mass
frequently falls to pieces. In the land icebergs, these columns are
often of amazing magnitude, so as, when separated, to form floating
icebergs.
All the ice floating in the sea is generally rough and uneven on the
surface, and during the greater part of the year covered with snow.
Even newly-formed ice, which is free from snow, is so rough and soft
that it cannot be skated upon. Under water the colour of the ice
varies with the colour of the sea; in blue water it is blue, in green
water it is green, and of deeper shades in proportion to its depth.
In the thickest olive-green coloured water, its colour, far beneath
the surface, appears brownish.
A description of the process of freezing from its commencement may
now be attempted. The first appearance of ice, when in a state of
detached crystals, is called by the sailors _sludge_, and resembles
snow when cast into water that is too cold to dissolve it. This
smooths the ruffled surface of the sea, and produces an effect like
oil in preventing breakers. These crystals soon unite, and would
form a continuous sheet, but, by the motion of the waves, they are
broken in very small pieces, scarcely three inches in diameter. As
they strengthen, many of them coalesce, and form a larger mass.
The undulations of the sea still continuing, these enlarged pieces
strike each other on every side, whereby they become rounded, and
their edges turn up, whence they obtain the name of _cakes_, or
_pan-cakes_. Several of these again unite, and thereby continue to
increase, forming larger flakes, until they become perhaps a foot
in thickness, and many yards in circumference. Every larger flake
retains on its surface the impression of the smaller flakes of which
it is composed, so that when, by the discontinuance of the swell, the
whole is permitted to freeze into an extensive sheet, it sometimes
assumes the appearance of a pavement. But when the sea is perfectly
smooth, the freezing process goes on more regularly, and probably
more rapidly. During twenty-four hours’ keen frost, the ice will
become an inch or two in thickness, and in less than forty-eight
hours’ time capable of sustaining the weight of a man. Both this
kind, and cake-ice, are termed bay-ice. In every opening of the main
body of ice at a distance from the sea, the water is always as smooth
as that of a harbour; and in low temperatures, all that is necessary
for the formation of ice is still water. There is no doubt that a
large quantity of ice is annually generated in the bays and amidst
the islands of Spitzbergen; which bays, towards the end of summer,
are commonly emptied of their contents, from the thawing of the
snow on the mountains causing a current outwards. But this will not
account for the immense fields which are so abundant in Greenland.
These evidently come from the northward, and have their origin
between Spitzbergen and the Pole.
Ice-fields constitute one of the wonders of the deep. They are often
met with of the diameter of twenty or thirty miles, and when in the
state of such close combination that no interstice could be seen,
they sometimes extend to a length of fifty or a hundred miles. The
ice of which they are composed is generally pure and fresh, and
in heavy fields it is probably of the average thickness of ten to
fifteen feet, and then appears to be flat, low, thin ice; but when
high hummocks occur, the thickness is often forty feet and fifty
feet. The surface before the month of July is always covered with
a bed of snow, from perhaps a foot to a fathom in depth. This snow
dissolves in the end of summer, and forms extensive pools and lakes
of fresh water. Some of the largest fields are very level and smooth,
though generally their surfaces are varied with hummocks. In some,
these hummocks form ridges or chains, in others, they consist of
insulated heaps. I once saw a field which was so free from either
fissure or hummock, that I imagined, had it been free from snow,
a coach might have been driven many leagues over it in a direct
line, without obstruction or danger. Hummocks somewhat relieve the
uniformity of intense light reflected from the surface of fields,
by exhibiting shades of delicate blue in all the hollows, where the
light is partly intercepted by passing through a portion of ice.
When the surface of snow on fields is frozen, or when the snow is
generally dissolved, there is no difficulty in travelling over them,
even without snow-skates or sledges. But when the snow is soft and
deep, travelling on foot to any distance is a work of labour. The
tribe of Esquimaux, discovered by captain Ross, made use of sledges,
drawn by dogs, for conveying them across the rough land-ice, lying
between the ships and the shore. A journey they performed with such
celerity, that captain Ross conjectured they could travel fifty or
sixty miles a day. If such a distance were practicable on drift-ice,
occurring near shore, it would be much more easy on the smoother ice
of fields.
This term, _field_, was given to the largest sheets of ice by a Dutch
whale-fisher. It was not until a period of many years after the
Spitzbergen fishery was established, that any navigator attempted to
penetrate the ice, or that any of the most extensive sheets of ice
were seen. One of the ships resorting to Smeerenberg for fishery, put
to sea on one occasion when no whales were seen, persevered westward
to a considerable length, and accidentally fell in with some immense
flakes of ice, which, on his return to his companions, he described
as truly wonderful, and as resembling fields in the extent of their
surface. Hence the application of the term field to this kind of ice.
The discoverer of it was distinguished by the title of “field-finder.”
Fields commonly make their appearance in the months of May or June,
though sometimes earlier; they are frequently the resort of young
whales. Strong north and westerly winds expose them to the whalers
by driving off the loose ice. The invariable tendency of fields is
to drift to the south-westward, even in calms, which is the means of
many being yearly destroyed. They have frequently been observed to
advance a hundred miles in this direction within the space of one
month, notwithstanding the occurrence of winds from every quarter.
On emerging from amidst the smaller ice, which before sheltered
them, they are soon broken up by the swell, are partly dissolved,
and partly converted into drift-ice. The places of such are supplied
by others from the north. The power of the swell in breaking the
heaviest fields is not a little remarkable. A grown swell, that is
so inconsiderable as not to be observed in open water, frequently
breaks up the largest fields, and converts them wholly into floes
and drift-ice in the space of a few hours; while fields composed of
bay-ice, or light-ice, being more flexible, endure the same swell
without any destructive effort.
The occasional rapid motion of fields, with the strange effects
produced by such immense bodies on any opposing substance, is one of
the most striking objects the Polar seas present, and is certainly
the most terrific. They not unfrequently acquire a rotatory movement,
whereby their circumference attains a velocity of several miles per
hour. A field thus in motion, coming in contact with another at
rest, or more especially with another having a contrary direction
of movement, produces a dreadful shock. A body of more than ten
thousand millions of tons in weight, meeting with resistance when
in motion, produces consequences which it is scarcely possible to
conceive. The weaker field is crushed with an awful noise; sometimes
the destruction is mutual; pieces of huge dimensions and weight are
not unfrequently piled upon the top, to the height of twenty or
thirty feet, while a proportionate quantity is depressed beneath.
The view of these stupendous effects in _safety_ exhibits a picture
sublimely grand, but where there is danger of being overwhelmed,
terror and dismay must be the predominant feelings. The whale-fishers
at all times require unremitting vigilance to secure their safety,
but scarcely in any situation so much as when navigating amidst
these fields; in foggy weather, they are particularly dangerous,
as their motions cannot then be distinctly observed. It may easily
be imagined, that the strongest ship is but an insignificant
impediment between two fields in motion. Numbers of vessels, since
the establishment of the fishery, have been thus destroyed; some
have been thrown upon the ice, some have had their hulls completely
torn open, or divided in two, and others have been overrun by the
ice, and buried beneath its heaped fragments. The Dutch have lost as
many as twenty-three sail of ships among the ice in one year. In the
season of 1684, fourteen of their ships were wrecked, and eleven more
remained beset during the winter.
In the month of May, of the year 1814, I witnessed a tremendous
scene. While navigating amidst the most ponderous ice which the
Greenland Sea presents, in the prospect of making our escape from
a state of _besetment_, our progress was unexpectedly arrested by
an isthmus of ice, about a mile in breadth, formed by the coalition
of the point of an immense field on the north, with that of an
aggregation of floes on the south. To the north field we moored the
ship, in the hope of the ice separating in this place. I then quitted
the ship, and travelled over the ice to the point of collision, to
observe the state of the bar, which now prevented our release. I
immediately discovered that the two points had but recently met, that
already a prodigious mass of rubbish had been squeezed upon the top,
and that the motion had not abated. The fields continued to overlay
each other with a majestic motion, producing a noise resembling
that of complicated machinery, or distant thunder. The pressure was
so immense, that numerous fissures were occasioned, and the ice
repeatedly rent beneath my feet. In one of the fissures, I found the
snow on the level three and a half feet deep, and the ice upwards of
twelve. In one place, hummocks had been thrown up to the height of
twenty feet from the surface of the field, and at least twenty-five
feet from the level of the water; they extended fifty or sixty yards
in length, and fifteen in breadth, forming a mass of about two
thousand tons in weight. The majestic, unvaried movement of the ice,
the singular noise by which it was accompanied, the tremendous power
exerted, and the wonderful effects produced—were calculated to excite
in the mind of the most careless spectator admiration of Him with
whom “the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the
small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very
little thing.”
The term _icebergs_ has commonly been applied to the glaciers
occurring in Spitzbergen, Greenland, and other arctic countries. It
is also as commonly extended to the large peaks, mountains, or islets
of ice that are found floating in the sea. It is the latter kind of
icebergs we purpose to describe.
Icebergs occur in many places in the arctic and antarctic regions;
some of them of astonishing magnitude. In the Spitzbergen Sea,
indeed, they are neither numerous nor bulky, compared with those
of other regions; the largest I ever met with in this quarter not
exceeding a thousand yards in circumference, and two hundred feet in
thickness. But in Hudson’s Strait, Davis’s Strait, and Baffin’s Bay,
they occur of a prodigious size. Ellis describes them as sometimes
occurring of the thickness of five hundred or six hundred yards.
Frobisher saw one iceberg which was judged to be “near fourscore
fathoms above water.” One berg is described by captain Ross (the
dimensions of which were given in by lieutenant Parry[1]) as having
nine unequal sides, as being aground in sixty-one fathoms, and as
measuring 4,169 yards (paces) long, 3,689 yards broad, and fifty-one
feet high. The weight of this iceberg, taken at somewhat smaller
dimensions, was estimated, by an officer of the Alexander, at
1,292,397,673 tons. This amount, however, is greater than the truth,
the cubical inch of ice being taken at 240 grains, whereas it does
not exceed 231·5 grains.
The most abundant source of icebergs known in the arctic regions is
Baffin’s Bay. From this remarkable sea they constantly make their
way towards the south, down Davis’s Strait, and are scattered abroad
in the Atlantic to an amazing extent. The banks of Newfoundland are
occasionally crowded with these wonderful productions of the frigid
zone; beyond which they are sometimes conveyed, by the operation of
the southerly under-current, as low as latitude 40° north, and even
lower, a distance of at least two thousand miles from the place of
their origin.
Icebergs commonly float on a base which is larger in extent than the
upper surface. Hence the proportion of ice appearing above water is
seldom less in elevation than one-seventh of the whole thickness; and
when the summit is conical, the elevation above water is frequently
one-fourth of the whole depth of the berg. Perhaps the most general
form of icebergs is with one high perpendicular side, the opposite
side very low, and the intermediate surface forming a gradual slope.
When of such a form, captain Ross found that the higher end was
generally to windward. Some icebergs have regular flat surfaces, but
most usually they have different acute summits, and occasionally
exhibit the most fantastic shapes. Some have been seen that were
completely perforated, or containing prodigious caverns, or having
many clefts or cracks in the most elevated parts, so as to give
the appearance of several distinct spires. On some icebergs, where
there are hollows, a great quantity of snow accumulates; others are
smooth and naked. The naked sides are often filled with conchoidal
excavations, of various magnitudes; sometimes with hollows the size
of the finger, and as regular as if formed by art. On some bergs,
pools of water occur stagnant; on others, large streams are seen
oozing through crevices into the sea. In a high sea, the waves
break against them as against a rock; and, in calm weather, where
there is a swell, the noise made by their rising and falling is
tremendous. When icebergs are aground, or when there is a superficial
current running to leeward, the motion of other ice past them is so
great that they appear to be moving to windward. Fields of ice, of
considerable thickness, meeting a berg under such circumstances,
are sometimes completely ripped up and divided through the middle.
Icebergs, when acted on by the sun, or by a temperate atmosphere,
become hollow and fragile. Large pieces are then liable to be broken
off, and fall into the sea with a terrible crash, which, in some
places, produces an echo in the neighbouring mountains. When this
circumstance, called _calving_, takes place, the iceberg loses
its equilibrium, sometimes turns on one side, and is occasionally
inverted. The sea is thereby put into commotion, fields of ice in the
vicinity are broken up, the waves extend, and the noise is heard to
the distance of several miles; and sometimes the rolling motion of
the berg not ceasing, other pieces get loosened and detached, till
the whole mass falls asunder like a wreck.
Icebergs differ a little in colour according to their solidity and
distance, or state of the atmosphere. A very general appearance
is that of cliffs of chalk, or of white or grey marble. The sun’s
rays reflected from them sometimes give a glistening appearance to
their surfaces. Different shades of colour occur in the precipitous
parts, accordingly as the ice is more or less solid, and accordingly
as it contains strata of earth, gravel, or sand, or is free from
any impurity. In the fresh fracture, greenish grey, approaching to
emerald green, is the prevailing colour. In the night, icebergs
are readily distinguished, even at a distance, by their natural
effulgence; and in foggy weather, by a peculiar blackness in the
atmosphere, by which the danger to the navigator is diminished.
As, however, they occur far from land, and often in unexpected
situations, navigators require to be always on the watch for them.
Though often dangerous neighbours, they have occasionally proved
useful auxiliaries to the whale-fishers. Their situation in a smooth
sea is very little affected by the wind; under the strongest gale
they are not perceptibly moved, but, on the contrary, have the
appearance of advancing to windward, because every other description
of ice moves rapidly past them. From the iceberg’s firmness, it often
affords a stable mooring to the ship in strong adverse winds, and the
fisher likewise avails himself of it when his object is to gain a
windward situation more open. He moors under the lee of the iceberg,
loose ice soon forces past, the ship remains nearly stationary, and
the wished-for effect seldom fails to result. Vessels have, however,
often been staved, and sometimes wrecked, by the fall of their icy
mooring; while smaller objects, such as boats, have been repeatedly
overwhelmed, even at a considerable distance, by the vast waves
occasioned by such events.
All ice becomes exceedingly fragile towards the close of the
whale-fishing season, when the temperate air thaws its surface,
and changes its solid structure into a brittle mass of imperfectly
attached columns. Bergs in this state being struck by an axe, for
the purpose of placing a mooring anchor, have been known to rend
asunder, and precipitate the careless seaman into the yawning
chasm; whilst, occasionally, the masses are hurled apart, and fall
in contrary directions with a prodigious crash, burying boats and
men in one common ruin. The awful effect produced by a solid mass,
many thousands, or even millions, of tons in weight, changing its
situation with the velocity of a falling body, whereby its aspiring
summit is in a moment buried in the ocean, can be more easily
imagined than described. Though a blow with an edge-tool on brittle
ice does not sever the mass, still it is often succeeded by a
crackling noise, proving the mass to be ready to burst from the force
of internal expansion, or from the destruction of its texture by a
warm temperature. It is common, when ships moor to icebergs, to lie
as remote from them as their ropes will allow, and yet accidents
sometimes happen, though the ship ride at the distance of a hundred
yards from the ice. In the year 1812, while the Thomas, of Hull,
captain Taylor, lay moored to an iceberg in Davis’s Strait, a _calf_
was detached from beneath, and rose with such tremendous force, that
the keel of the ship was lifted on a level with water at the bow,
and the stern was nearly immersed beneath the surface. Fortunately,
the blow was received on the keel, and the ship was not materially
damaged.
From the deep pools of water found in the summer season on the
depressed surface of some bergs, or from streams running down their
sides, the ships navigating where they abound are presented with
opportunities for watering with the greatest ease and dispatch. For
this purpose, casks are landed upon the lower bergs, filled, and
rolled into the sea; but, from the higher, the water is conveyed by
means of a long tube of canvas, or leather, called a _hose_, into
casks placed in the boats, at the side of the ice, or even upon the
deck of the ship.
The greater part of the icebergs that occur in Davis’s Strait, and on
the eastern coast of North America, notwithstanding their profusion
and immense magnitude, seem to be merely fragments of the land
icebergs, or glaciers, which exist in great numbers on the coast
forming the boundaries of Baffin’s Bay. These glaciers fill immense
valleys, and extend, in some places, several miles into the sea; in
others, they terminate with a precipitous edge at the general line
formed by the coast. In the summer season, when they are particularly
fragile, the force of cohesion is often overcome by the weight of
the prodigious masses that overhang the sea; and, in winter, the
same effect may be produced by the powerful expansion of the water
filling any excavation, or deep-seated cavity, when its dimensions
are enlarged by freezing, thereby exerting a tremendous force, and
bursting the berg asunder. Pieces thus, or otherwise, detached,
are hurled into the sea with a dreadful crash. When they fall into
sufficiently deep water, they are liable to be drifted off the land,
and down Davis’s Strait, according to the set of the current; but,
if they fall into a shallow sea, they must remain until sufficiently
wasted to float away.
Spitzbergen is possessed of every character which is supposed to be
necessary for the formation of the largest icebergs; high mountains,
deep extensive valleys, intense frost, occasional thaws, and great
falls of sleet and snow; yet here a berg is rarely met with, and
the largest that occur are not to be compared with the productions
of Baffin’s Bay. The reason of the difference between Spitzbergen
and Old Greenland as to the production of icebergs is, perhaps,
this—that, while the sea is generally deep, and the coast almost
continually sheltered by drift-ice at the foot of the glaciers, in
Baffin’s Bay; in Spitzbergen, on the contrary, they usually terminate
at the water’s edge, or where the sea is shallow, so that no very
large mass, if dislodged, can float away, and they are, at the same
time, so much exposed to heavy swells, as to occasion dismemberments
too frequently to admit of their attaining considerable magnitude.
That extensive body of ice which, with occasional tracts of land,
occupies the northern extremity of the earth, and prevents all access
to the regions immediately surrounding the Pole, fills, it appears,
on an average, a circle of above two thousand geographical miles
diameter, and presents an outline which, though subject to partial
variations, is found at the same season of each succeeding year to be
generally similar, and often strikingly uniform. The most remarkable
alteration in the configuration of the Polar ice on record, is that
said to have taken place between Iceland and Greenland, in the
beginning of the fifteenth century, whereby the intercourse between
the Icelanders and the colonies in Greenland was interrupted; and,
although many attempts have been made on the part of Denmark for the
recovery of these colonies, and for ascertaining the fate of the
colonists, they have not yet succeeded. In various countries, changes
of climate, to a certain extent, have occurred within the limits
of historical record; these changes have been commonly for the
better, and have been considered as the effects of human industry, in
draining marshes and lakes, felling woods, and cultivating the earth;
but here is an occurrence which, if it be indeed true, is the reverse
of common experience, and concerning the causes of which it is not
easy to offer any conjecture.
With each recurring spring, the north Polar ice presents the
following general outline. Filling the Bays of Hudson and Baffin,
as well as the Straits of Hudson, and part of that of Davis, it
exhibits an irregular, waving, but generally continuous line, from
Newfoundland or Labrador to Nova Zembla. From Newfoundland it
extends in a northerly direction along the Labrador shore, generally
preventing all access to the land, as high as the mouth of Hudson’s
Strait; then, turning to the north-eastward, forms a bay near the
coast of Greenland, in latitude perhaps 66° or 67°, by suddenly
passing away to the southward to the extremity of Greenland. The
quantity of ice on the east side of Davis’s Strait being often small,
the continuity of its border is liable to be broken, so as to admit
of ships reaching the land; and sometimes the bay of the ice, usually
occurring in the spring, in latitude 66° or 67°, does not exist, but
the sea is open up the strait to a considerable distance beyond it.
After doubling the southern promontory, or Cape Farewell, it advances
in a north-eastern direction along the east coast, sometimes
enveloping Iceland as it proceeds, until it reaches the Island of
Jan Mayen. Passing this island on the north-west, but frequently
inclosing it, the edge of the ice then trends a little more to the
eastward, and usually intersects the meridian of London between the
71st and 73rd degree of latitude. Having reached the longitude of 5°
or 6° east, in some instances as far as 8° or 10°, in the 73rd or
74th degree or north latitude, it joins a remarkable promontory, and
suddenly stretches to the north, sometimes proceeding on a meridian
to the latitude of 80°, at others forming a deep sinuosity, extending
two or three degrees to the northward, and then south-easterly to
Cherie Island, which, having passed, it assumes a more direct course
a little to the southward of east, until it forms a junction with the
Siberian or Nova Zemblan coast.
During the winter and spring months, the Polar ice seems closely to
embrace the whole of the northern shores of Russia, to the eastward
of Nova Zembla, and filling, in a great measure, Behring’s Strait
and the sea to the northward of it, continues in contact with the
Polar face of the American continent, following the line of the coast
to the eastward, until it effects a junction with the ice in the
Spitzbergen Sea, or in the great north-western bays of Hudson and
Baffin, or is terminated by land yet undiscovered.
That remarkable promontory midway between Jan Mayen and Cherie
Islands, formed by the sudden stretch of the ice to the north,
constitutes the line of separation between the east, or _whaling_,
and west, or _sealing_, ice of the fishers; and the deep bay lying to
the east of this promontory, which may be called the _Whale-fisher’s
Bight_, invariably forms the only pervious track for proceeding
to fishing latitudes northward. When the ice at the extremity of
this bay occurs so strong and compact as to prevent the approach
to the shores of Spitzbergen, and the advance northward beyond the
latitude of 75° or 76°, it is said to be a _close season_, and, on
the contrary, it is called an _open season_ when an uninterrupted
navigation extends along the western coast of Spitzbergen to
Hackluyt’s Headland.
The place where whales occur in the greatest abundance is generally
found to be in 78° or 79° of north latitude, though, from the 72nd to
the 81st degree they have been met with. They prefer those situations
which afford them the most secure retreats, and the course of their
flight when scared or wounded is generally towards the nearest or
most compact ice. The place of their retreat, however, is regulated
by various circumstances; it may sometimes depend on the quality or
quantity of food occurring, the disposition of the ice, or exemption
from enemies. Sometimes they seem collected within a small and
single circuit; at others, they are scattered in various hordes
and numerous single individuals over an amazing extent of surface.
In _close seasons_, though the ice joins the south of Spitzbergen,
and thereby forms a _barrier_ against the fishing-stations, yet this
barrier is often of a limited extent, and terminates on the coasts
of Spitzbergen in an open space, either forming or leading to the
retreat of the whales. Such space is sometimes frozen over till the
middle or end of the month of May, but not unfrequently free from
ice. The barrier here opposed to the fisher usually consists of a
body of ice, from twenty to thirty or forty leagues across in the
shortest diameter. It is of importance to pass this barrier of ice as
early as possible in the season. The fisher here avails himself of
every power within his command. The sails are expanded in favourable
winds, and withdrawn in contrary breezes. The ship is urged forward
amongst drift-ice by the force of the wind, assisted with ropes and
saws. Whenever a vein of water appears in the required direction, it
is, if possible, attained. It always affords a temporary relief, and
sometimes a permanent release, by extending itself through intricate
mazes, amidst ice of various descriptions, until at length it opens
into the desired place, void of obstruction, constituting the usual
retreat of the whales.
The barrier which we have described, when it occurs, is regularly
encountered on the first arrival of the Greenland ships in the
month of April, but is generally removed by natural means as the
season advances. It is usually found separate from the land, and
divided asunder by the close of the month of June; and hence it is
that, however difficult and laborious may have been the ingress
into the fishing country, the egress is commonly effected without
much inconvenience. In the month of May, the severity of the frost
relaxes, and the temperature generally approaches a few degrees of
the freezing point. The salt in the sea then exerts its liquefying
influence, and destroys the tenacity of the bay-ice, makes inroads
in its parts by enlarging its pores into holes, diminishes its
thickness, and, in the language of the whale-fisher, completely rots
it. Packed drift-ice is then liberated, and obeys the slightest
impulses of the winds or currents. The heavier having more stability
than the lighter, an apparent difference of movement obtains among
the pieces, and holes and lanes of water are formed to allow the
entrance and progress of the ships. Bay-ice, though sometimes
serviceable to the whalers in preserving them from the brunt of the
heavy ice, is often the means of besetment, and hence the primary
cause of every calamity. Heavy ice, many feet in thickness, and in
detached pieces of from fifty to a hundred tons’ weight each, though
crowded together in the form of a pack, may be penetrated in a
favourable gale with tolerable dispatch, whilst a sheet of bay-ice,
of a few inches only in thickness, with the same advantage of wind,
will often arrest the progress of the ship, and render her in a few
minutes immovable. If this ice be too strong to be broken by the
weight of the boat, recourse must be had to sawing, an operation slow
and laborious in the extreme.
When the warmth of the season has rotted the bay-ice, the passage
to the northward can generally be accomplished with a very great
saving of labour. Therefore it was the older fishers seldom or never
used to attempt it before the 10th of May, and foreign fishers
in the present day are in general late. Sometimes late arrivals
are otherwise beneficial, since it frequently happens, in _close
seasons_, that ships entering the ice about the middle of May obtain
an advantage over those preceding them, by gaining a situation more
eligible, on account of its nearness to the land. Their predecessors,
meanwhile, are drifted off to the westward with the ice, and cannot
recover their easting. Hence, it appears, it would be economical
and beneficial to sail so late as not to reach the _country_ before
the middle of May, or to persevere on the sealing stations until
that time. There are, however, some weighty objections to this
method. Open seasons occasionally occur, and great progress may be
made, especially by superior fishers, before that time. A week or a
fortnight’s solitary fishing, under favourable circumstances, has
frequently gained half a cargo. The change which takes place in the
ice, amidst which the whale-fisher pursues his object, is, towards
the close of the _season_, indeed astonishing. For, not only does
it separate into its original individual portions, not only does
it retreat in a body from the western coast of Spitzbergen, but,
in general, that barrier of ice which incloses the fishing-site
in the spring, which costs the fisher immense labour and anxiety
to penetrate, by retarding his advance towards the north, and
his progress in the fishery, for the space of several weeks,
spontaneously divides in the midst about the month of June, and, on
the return of the ships, is not at all to be seen. Then is the sea
rendered freely navigable from the very haunts of the whales to the
expanse of the Atlantic Ocean.
Our remarks may now be directed, for a few pages, to the properties,
peculiar movements, and drifting of the ice.
1. The ice always has a tendency to separate during calms.
2. Openings in packs and among fields, or floes, frequently break
out, or disappear, without any apparent cause.
3. Fields often open, close, and revolve, in the most extraordinary
manner, in calms as well as in storms.
4. The amazing changes which take place amongst the most compact ice
are often unaccountable.
5. When speaking of the currents of the Spitzbergen Sea, it has
been remarked that the Polar ice, in this situation, has a constant
tendency to drift to the south-westward. Near Spitzbergen, indeed,
this tendency is not usually observed, because the influence of the
tide, eddies, peculiar pressures, etc., sometimes produce a contrary
effect; but, at a distance from land, its universal prevalence is
easily illustrated.
In the beginning of May, 1814, we entered with the ship Esk,
of Whitby, a spacious opening of the ice, in latitude 78° 10′,
longitude 4° east, to a distance of ten or twelve leagues from the
exterior, wherein we were tempted to stay, from the appearance of
a great number of whales. On the 9th of May, the ship became fixed
in the ice, and, until the 16th, we lay immovable. A break of the
bay-ice then appeared about half-a-mile from us, to attain which we
laboured with energy, and, in eight hours, accomplished a passage
for the ship. On the 20th, in attempting to advance, we endured a
heavy pressure of the bay-ice, which shook the ship in an alarming
manner. After a fatiguing effort in passing through the midst of an
aggregation of floes against the wind, we reached a channel, which
led us several miles to the south-eastward; and, on the 23rd, we
lay at rest with four other ships. The day following, having sawn
a place for the ship in a thin floe, we forced forward between two
large masses, where bay-ice, unconsolidated, had been compressed
till it had become ten or twelve feet thick. We were assisted by a
hundred men from the accompanying ships, which followed close in
our rear. After applying all our mechanical powers during eight
or nine hours, we passed the strait of about a furlong in length,
and immediately the ice collapsed, and riveted the ships of our
companions to the spot. We advanced on various winding courses to
the distance of several miles, and then discovered a continuation of
the navigation between two immense sheets of ice, but the channel
was so narrow and intricate, that, for the distance of near a mile,
it did not appear more than from ten to twenty yards in width. The
prospect was, indeed, appalling; but, perceiving indications of the
enlargement of the passage rather than the contrary, we advanced
under a press of sail, driving aside some disengaged lumps of ice
that opposed us, and shortly accomplished our wishes in safety. Here
an enlivening prospect presented itself; to the extreme limits of
the horizon no interruption was visible. We made a predetermined
signal to the ships we had left, indicative of our hope of speedy
release. In two hours, however, we were disappointed by meeting
the fields in the act of collapsing, and completely barring our
progress. As the distance across was scarcely a mile, and the sea, to
appearance, clear beyond it, the interruption was most tantalizing.
We waited at the point of union, and, on the morning of the 26th of
May, our anxiety was happily relieved by the wished-for division
of the ice. The ship, propelled by a brisk wind, darted through the
strait, and entered a sea, which we considered the termination of
our difficulties. After steering three hours to the south-eastward,
we were concerned to discover our conclusions had been premature.
An immense pack opened on our view, stretching directly across our
path. There was no alternative but forcing through it; we therefore
pushed forward into the least connected part. By availing ourselves
of every advantage of sailing, where sailing was practicable, and
_boring_ or drifting where the pieces of ice lay close together, we
at length reached the leeward part of a narrow channel, in which we
had to ply a considerable distance against the wind. When performing
this, the wind, which had hitherto blown a brisk breeze from the
north, increased to a strong gale. The ship was placed in such a
critical situation that we could not, for above an hour, accomplish
any reduction of the sails; and while I was personally engaged
performing the duty of a pilot on the topmast-head, the bending
of the mast was so uncommon that I was seriously alarmed for its
stability. At length, we were enabled to reef our sails, and for
some time proceeded with less danger. Our direction was now east,
then north for several hours, then easterly, ten or fifteen miles;
when, after eighteen hours of the most difficult and occasionally
hazardous sailing, in which the ship received some hard blows from
the ice, after pursuing a tedious course nearly ninety miles, and
accomplishing a distance on a direct north-east course of about forty
miles, we found ourselves at the very margin of the sea, separated
only by a narrow sea-stream. The sea was so great without, and the
wind so violent, that we durst not hazard an attempt to force through
this remaining obstacle. After waiting about thirty hours, on the
morning of the 28th of May, the weather cleared, and the wind abated.
The sea-stream was now augmented to upwards of a mile broad. One
place alone was visible where the breadth was less considerable, and
through it we accomplished our final escape into the open sea.
I have thus been minute in the relation of our extrication from an
alarming, though not very uncommon state of besetment, in order to
give a faint idea of the difficulties and dangers which those engaged
in the whale-fishery have occasionally to encounter, as well as to
illustrate the manner in which ships are carried away from their
original situation by the regularity of the drift of ice to the
south-westward. The life of the mariner is one always of great labour
and peril, but in navigating these arctic seas he is exposed to
sudden and peculiar dangers.
It is possible that the title and contents of this volume may allure
to its perusal some who look forward to exposure to dangers such
as those which are here described. They surely will not deem it
intrusive to be reminded that the most important preparation for
such undertakings, as well as for the whole of life, is to surrender
the heart to that Saviour who has died to redeem his servants from
guilt and ruin. The pardon and peace which he freely confers on all
who come to him, are the only safe comforts of a departing soul. It
is his blood only that cleanses from all sin; it is his Spirit that
renews and sanctifies the mind; and whatever pain or accident may
befal the body, there can be “no condemnation” in time or in eternity
“to them which are in Christ Jesus.” The message of God to man is the
offer of a free salvation, through the death of his glorious Son.
This offer must determine the eternal condition of all to whom it is
in God’s mercy revealed. “God so loved the world, that he gave his
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life!” Reader, do you understand, and have you
accepted, this gracious message?
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Now sir John Ross and sir Edward Parry.