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TECHNICAL TERMS

PECULIAR TO THE NAVIGATION AMONG ICE.

BAY-ICE.

The expres

Ice newly formed upon the surface of the sea. sion is, however, applied also to ice a foot or two in thickness. BESET. — The situation of a ship when closely surrounded by ice. BIGHT. - An indentation in a floe of ice, like a bay, by which name it is sometimes called.

BLINK. A peculiar brightness in the atmosphere, often assuming an arch-like form, which is generally perceptible over ice or land covered with snow. The blink of land, as well as that over large quantities of ice, is usually of a yellowish cast.

BORE. The operation of "boring" through loose ice consists in entering it under a press of sail, and forcing the ship through by separating the masses.

BRASH.

Ice broken up into small fragments.

CACHE. - Literally a hiding-place. The places of deposit of provision in Arctic travel are so called.

CALF. -A mass of ice lying under a floe near its margin, and, when disengaged from that position, rising with violence to the surface of the water. See TONGUE.

CROW'S NEST. A small circular house, like a cask, fixed at the masthead, in which the look-out man sits, either to guide the ship through the ice, or to give notice of whales.

DOCK.

In a floe may be natural or artificial: the former being simply a small "bight," in which a ship is placed to secure her from the danger of external pressure; and the latter, a square space cut out with saws for a similar purpose.

FIELD. A sheet of ice generally of great thickness, and of too great extent to be seen over from a ship's masthead.

FIORD.

- An abrupt opening in the coast-line admitting the sea. FLOE. -The same as a field, except that its extent can be distinguished from a ship's masthead. A " bay-floe" is a floe of ice newly formed. FLOE-PIECE. - An expression generally applied to small pieces of floes, not more than a furlong square.

GLACIER. A mass of ice derived from the atmosphere, sometimes abutting on the sea.

HUMMOCK. -A mass of ice rising to a considerable height above the

general level of a floe, and forming a part of it.

Hummocks are

originally raised by the pressure of floes against each other. ICE-ANCHOR. A hook or grapnel adapted to take hold upon ice. ICE-BELT. A continued margin of ice, which, in high northern latitudes, adheres to the coast above the ordinary level of the sea. ICEBERG. -- A large floating mass of ice detached from a glacier. ICE-FOOT.The Danish name of the limited ice-belt of the more southern coast.

LAND-ICE. — Ice attached to the land, either in floes or in heavy grounded masses lying near the shore.

LANE OF WATER. - A narrow channel among the masses of ice, through which a boat or ship may pass.

LEAD. A channel through the ice. A ship is said to "take the right lead " when she follows a channel conducting her into a more navigable sea, and vice versâ.

NIPPED. The situation of a ship when forcibly pressed by ice on both sides.

PACK. A large body of ice, consisting of separate masses, lying close together, and whose extent cannot be seen.

PANCAKE-ICE. — Newly-formed ice, assuming the peculiar conformation of numberless patches of “ sludge,” and giving the surface of the sea the appearance of a handsome pavement.

PATCH OF ICE. The same as a pack, but of small dimensions. PEMMICAN. Meat cured, pulverized, and mixed with fat, containing much nutriment in a small compass.

SAILING-ICE. -Ice of which the masses are so much separated as to allow a ship to sail among them.

Sludge. - Ice of the consistence of thick honey, offering little impediment to a ship while in this state, but greatly favoring the formation of a "bay-floe."

STREAM.

A long and narrow, but generally continuous, collection of loose ice.

TONGUE. A mass of ice projecting under water from an iceberg or floe, and generally distinguishable at a considerable depth of smooth water. It differs from a "calf" in being fixed to, or a part of, the larger body.

TRACKING. — Towing along a margin of ice.

WATER-SKY. A dark appearance in the sky, indicating "clear water"

in that direction, and forming a striking contrast with the blink " over land or ice.

YOUNG-ICE. — Nearly the same as "bay-ice," but generally applied to ice more recently formed than the latter.

ARCTIC ADVENTURE.

CHAPTER I.

ASPECTS OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. · PHENOMENA.

THE ARCTIC OCEAN.

EARLIEST EXPLORERS. THE NORTHMEN. THE CABOTS. THE CORTE

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THE varied physical aspect of the globe offers as much to charm or awe the eye of man as to minister to his comfort and well-being. From the glowing heat and gorgeous vegetation of the torrid zone, we move through all gradations of climate and feature, to the frigid regions of either pole, where perpetual ice and a depressed temperature present an extraordinary contrast to the lands of the sun: from intensest heat we pass to intensest cold; from the sandy deserts of the south to the icy deserts of the north. Yet there is as much in the frozen zone to impress and elevate the mind of the beholder as in the countries where nature displays herself in rich and exuberant loveliness.

Beyond the seventieth degree of latitude not a tree meets the eye, wearied with the white waste of snow; forests, woods, even shrubs, have disappeared, and given place to a few lichens and creeping woody plants, which scantily clothe the indurated soil. Still, in the furthest north, nature claims her birthright of beauty; and in the brief and rapid summer she brings forth numerous

flowers and grasses to bloom for a few days, until again blasted by the swiftly-recurring winter.

In these regions certain mysterious phenomena exhibit their most powerful effects. Here is the point of attraction of the compass needle; and here the dipping needle, which lies horizontal at the equator, points straight downwards. Slowly, in its cycle of nearly two thousand years, this centre or pole of magnetic attraction revolves in obedience to laws as yet unknown. Two degrees further toward the north is situated the pole of cold-a mystery like the former to science, but equally inciting to curiosity. If induction may be trusted, the pole of the earth is less cold than the latitudes fifteen degrees below it.

Round the shores and seas of the arctic regions ice ever accumulates: a circle of two thousand miles' diameter is occupied by frozen fields and floes of vast extent, or piled high with hugest forms, awful yet fantastic as a dreamer's fancy. Mountain masses

"Whose blocks of sapphire seem to mortal eye

Hewn from cerulean quarries in the sky,

With glacier battlements that crowd the spheres,
The slow creation of six thousand years,

Amidst immensity they tower sublime,

Winter's eternal palace, built by Time."

Here the months are divided into long periods of daylight and darkness: for many weeks the sun sinks not below the horizon; for three dreary months he appears not above it

"And morning comes, but comes not clad in light ;
Uprisen day is but a paler night."

But, in the absence of the great luminary, the vivid coruscations of the aurora borealis illuminate the wintry landscape, streaming across the skies in broad sheets of

light, flashing in multi-colored rays, or quivering in faint and feathery scintillations a light that takes away the irksomeness of gloom, and makes the long night wondrous.

The desolate grandeur of the scene is in many parts increased by the entire absence of animated nature; in others the dearth of vegetation is compensated by superabundance of animal life. Wrangell tells us that "countless herds of reindeer, elks, black bears, foxes, sables, and gray squirrels, fill the upland forests; stone foxes and wolves roam over the low grounds. Enormous flights of swans, geese, and ducks, arrive in spring, and seek deserts where they may moult and build their nests in safety. Eagles, owls, and gulls, pursue their prey along the sea-coast; ptarmigan run in troops among the bushes; little snipes are busy along the brooks and in the morasses; the social crows seek the neighborhood of men's habitations; and when the sun shines in spring, one may even sometimes hear the cheerful note of the finch, and in autumn that of the thrush."

"There is," as observed by Lieutenant-Colonel Sabine, "a striking resemblance in the configuration of the northern coasts of the continents of Asia and America for several hundred miles on either side of Behring's Strait; the general direction of the coast is the same in both continents, the latitude is nearly the same, and each has its attendant group of islands to the north: the Asiatic continent, those usually known as the New Siberian Islands; and the American, those called by Sir Edward Parry the North Georgian Group, and since fitly named, from their discoverer, the Parry Islands. The resemblance includes the islands also, both in general character and latitude."

With respect to the Arctic Ocean, a late writer ex

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