faint idea may be formed of the grandeur and beauty of the spectacle." "* The mention of alabaster in this description recalls the enthusiastic account given by Mr. Noble of the texture of the melting bergs on the coast of Labrador. He speaks of a precipitous berg having a fresh sharp fracture, the beauty of which he tries to give an idea of by comparing it to the polish of ivory, the glassy polish of mirrors, the enamel of sea-shells, the brightness of burnished steel, the face of rubbed marble, of smoothest alabaster, of pearl, of porcelain, of flesh, of wax. A great source of beauty and interest in icebergs is the endless variety in their appearance and colour caused by atmospheric and prismatic effects, and by the different distances at which they are seen. While from afar the whole mass may appear to be composed of white marble or alabaster, on a nearer view the same berg may have a fine green tint, verging on blue. By night as well as by day the icy walls glitter and sparkle with a silvery radiance, or with a vividness of colour which the witnesses of their beauty are wholly at a loss to describe. Sometimes, as will presently. appear, the ice is mixed with earth, gravel, or sand, sometimes it is the bearer of huge rocks, and even of plants and animals, in each case varying in appearance, and gaining or losing some picturesque effect. The romantic appearance of ice * "United States Exploring Expedition. Antarctic Cruise." See also "Summer in the Antarctic Regions." bergs is greatly heightened by the foaming and dashing of the waves into the curious holes and caverns by which many of them are pierced, but the impression conveyed by their beauty has usually such a large admixture of awe, that we do not wonder at Captain Cook's remark, that they "fill the mind with admiration and horror." The dangers of icebergs are as varied as their picturesque effects. First, there is the danger from large pieces of ice which are broken off from their sides by the violence of the waves, and which are often more destructive to ships than the ice-islands themselves: the large bergs can be seen from a distance unless the weather be very foggy and dark, whereas the fragments may come unawares upon a ship in the night, and do serious damage. This source of danger is however borne with, and watched against as closely as possible, while the ships gain some sort of compensation for the danger by the seasonable supplies of fresh water which ice-islands afford. The whole of the ice is of course, from its inland origin, composed of fresh water, and thus carries refreshment to animal life wherever it is found in these seas. The immense mass of the bergs, and their slow motion causes them, under certain circumstances, to be resorted to for shelter by ships exposed to the dangers of floating ice in stormy weather; but this shelter may prove treacherous, and the ship moored to an iceberg may possibly share in the tremendous catastrophe which happens to these ice-islands when approaching warmer regions, and becoming undermined irregularly. The whole mass may then lose its balance, and suddenly capsize, or it may send up such formidable fragments as to pierce the bottom of the vessel. Mr. Noble describes the motion of an iceberg as something exceedingly grand; not its movement from place to place, but about its centre-its rotation and vibration. Where the berg is grounded "it only beats and sways to and fro, vibrating through the arc of a circle like an inverted pendulum :" when it is not grounded it may be considered as resting freely upon a point, at which the pressure upwards of the water beneath may be supposed to be concentrated, and which, in order for the floating mass to be in equilibrium, must be exactly under the centre of gravity of the latter. As therefore the loss of a single ton of ice shifts that centre, it necessarily destroys the equilibrium, and subjects the whole to some small movement in order to regain its rest. When instead of a ton thousands fall off, it sets rolling the whole clifted and pinnacled circumference. The sublimity of these stupendous masses in motion appears to be quite indescribable, and the motions, owing to the centre of gravity being far down in the depths below, are quite different from what might at first be imagined. "A berg of large diameter, instead of falling over upon the sea like a wall, or precipice, appears to advance bodily, slowly sinking as it comes, with a slightly in creasing inclination towards you. In its backward roll this is reversed. It seems to be retreating, slowly rising as it floats away, with a slightly increasing inclination from you. In these grand vibrations projecting points and masses of opposite sides correspondingly emerge and disappear, rising apparently straight up out of the sea on this side, going down as straight on the other." These violent oscillations of icebergs form an obvious source of danger in those latitudes where the melting and breaking up of such masses take place; but in the polar seas the chief danger is that of being driven by the wind immediately on a berg in foggy weather, or getting entangled among bergs, and crushed between them. The position of the Erebus and Terror many times during Sir James Ross's expedition was one of extreme danger, owing to the mass of bergs by which the ships were surrounded. The imminence of the peril on one occasion, when the ships were making rapid progress, is thus described by the commander: "Numerous small pieces of ice were met with, warning us of the presence of bergs, concealed by thickly falling snow. Before midnight I directed the topsails to be close reefed, and every arrangement made for rounding-to until daylight, deeming it too hazardous to run any longer. Our people had hardly completed these operations when a large berg was seen ahead, and quite close to us; the ship was immediately hauled to the wind on the port tack with the expectation of being able to weather it; but just at this moment the Terror was observed running down upon us under her topsails and foresail; and as it was impossible for her to clear both the berg and the Erebus, collision was inevitable. We instantly hove all aback to diminish the violence of the shock; but the concussion, when she struck us, was such as to throw almost every one off his feet; our bowsprit, topmasts, and other smaller spars were carried away, and the ships hanging together, entangled by their rigging, and dashing against each other with fearful violence, were falling down upon the weather face of the lofty berg under our lee, against which the waves were breaking and foaming to near the summit of its perpendicular cliffs. Sometimes she rose high above us, almost exposing her keel to view, and again descended as we in our turn rose to the top of the wave, threatening to bury her beneath us, whilst the crashing of the breaking upper-works and boats increased the horror of the scene. Providentially the ships gradually forged past each other, and separated before we drifted down amongst the foaming breakers; and we had the gratification of seeing the Terror clear the end of the berg, and of feeling that she was safe. But she left us completely disabled, the wreck of the spars so encumbered the lower yards, that we were unable to make sail, so as to get headway on the ship; nor had we room to wear round, being by this time so close to the berg that the waves, when they struck against |