CHAPTER III.
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 varietyof 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. Aniceberg, 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. Afieldis a sheet of ice, so extensive that its limits cannot be discerned from the ship’s mast-head.
3. Afloeis similar to a field, but smaller, inasmuch as its extentcanbe seen. This term, however, is seldom applied to pieces of ice of less diameter than half-a-mile or a mile.
4.Drift-iceconsists of pieces less than floes, of various shapes and magnitudes.
5.Brash-iceis still smaller than drift-ice, and may be considered as the wreck of other kinds of ice.
6.Bay-iceis that which is newly-formed on the sea, and consists of two kinds, common bay-ice andpancake-ice; the former occurring in smooth extensive sheets, and the latter in small circular pieces, with raised edges.
7.Sludgeconsists of a stratum of detached ice crystals, or of snow, or of the smaller fragmentsof brash-ice, floating on the surface of the sea.
8. Ahummockis 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. Acalfis 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. Atongueis a point of ice projecting nearly horizontally from a part that is under water. Ships have sometimes run aground upon tongues of ice.
11. Apackis a body of drift-ice, of such magnitude that its extent is not discernible. A pack isopenwhen the pieces of ice, though very near each other, do not generally touch, orclosewhen the pieces are in complete contact.
12. Apatchis 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. Astreamis an oblong collection of drift or bay-ice, the pieces of which are continuous. It is called asea-streamwhen it is exposed on one side to the ocean, and affords shelter from the sea to whatever is within it.
14.Open-ice, orsailing-ice, is where the pieces are so separate as to admit of a ship sailing conveniently among them.
15.Heavyandlightare terms attached to ice, distinguishable of its thickness.
16.Land-iceconsists 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. Abightis a bay in the outline of the ice.
18. Alaneorveinis 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-fishersdistinguish 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 commonlyfresh; 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 tothe 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 sailorssludge, 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 likeoil 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 ofcakes, orpan-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 isannually 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 fromsnow, 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 westwardto 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 moreflexible, 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 insafetyexhibits 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 beimagined, 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 ofbesetment, 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 overlayeach 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 termicebergshas 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 astonishingmagnitude. 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.Fromthis 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 wonderfulproductions 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, calledcalving, 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 theatmosphere. 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 remainsnearly 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 theirropes 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, acalfwas 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 ahose, 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. Theseglaciers 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-iceat 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; thesechanges 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-easterndirection 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, orwhaling, and west, orsealing, ice of the fishers; and the deep bay lying to the east of this promontory, which may be called theWhale-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 aclose season, and, on the contrary, it is called anopen seasonwhen 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. Inclose seasons, though the ice joins the south of Spitzbergen, and thereby forms abarrieragainst 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 firstarrival 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, inclose 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 thecountrybefore 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 theseason, 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, hadbeen 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, andboringor 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 theship 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 asthose 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?