We Found The Work Of Pushing Through The Ice Rather Tiresome.
An
opening of twenty or thirty yards would be found here and there, then
a close pack that had to be opened by pushing the smaller bergs aside
with poles.
I enjoyed the labor, however, for the fine lessons I got,
and in an hour or two we found zigzag lanes of water, through which
we paddled with but little interruption, and had leisure to study the
wonderful variety of forms the bergs presented as we glided past
them. The largest we saw did not greatly exceed two hundred feet in
length, or twenty-five or thirty feet in height above the water. Such
bergs would draw from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet of
water. All those that have floated long undisturbed have a projecting
base at the water-line, caused by the more rapid melting of the
immersed portion. When a portion of the berg breaks off, another base
line is formed, and the old one, sharply cut, may be seen rising at
all angles, giving it a marked character. Many of the oldest bergs
are beautifully ridged by the melting out of narrow furrows strictly
parallel throughout the mass, revealing the bedded structure of the
ice, acquired perhaps centuries ago, on the mountain snow fountains.
A berg suddenly going to pieces is a grand sight, especially when the
water is calm and no motion is visible save perchance the slow drift
of the tide-current.
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