diff options
Diffstat (limited to '21754.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 21754.txt | 4706 |
1 files changed, 4706 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/21754.txt b/21754.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..22e86cb --- /dev/null +++ b/21754.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4706 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ocean and its Wonders, by R.M. Ballantyne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Ocean and its Wonders + +Author: R.M. Ballantyne + +Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21754] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OCEAN AND ITS WONDERS *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +THE OCEAN AND ITS WONDERS, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE. + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +WHAT THE OCEAN HAS TO SAY--ITS WHISPERS--ITS THUNDERS--ITS SECRETS. + +There is a voice in the waters of the great sea. It calls to man +continually. Sometimes it thunders in the tempest, when the waves leap +high and strong and the wild winds shriek and roar, as if to force our +attention. Sometimes it whispers in the calm, and comes rippling on the +shingly beach in a still, small voice, as if to solicit our regard. But +whether that voice of ocean comes in crashing billows or in gentle +murmurs, it has but one tale to tell,--it speaks of the love, and power, +and majesty of Him who rides upon the storm, and rules the wave. + +Yes, the voice of ocean tells but one tale; yet there are many chapters +in that wonderful story. The sea has much to say; far more than could +possibly be comprehended in one volume, however large. It tells us of +the doings of man on its broad bosom, from the day in which he first +ventured to paddle along shore in the hollow trunk of a tree, to the day +when he launched his great iron ship of 20,000 tons, and rushed out to +sea, against wind and tide, under an impulse equal to the united +strength of 11,500 horses. No small portion of the ocean's tale this, +comprising many chapters of deeds of daring, blood, villainy, heroism, +and enterprise. But with this portion of its story we have nothing to +do just now. It tells us, also, of God's myriad and multiform +creatures, that dwell in its depths, from the vast whale, whose speed is +so great, that it might, if it chose, circle round the world in a few +days, to the languid zoophyte, which clings to the rock, and bears more +resemblance to a plant than to a living animal. + +The sea has secrets, too, some of which it will not divulge until that +day when its Creator shall command it to give up its dead; while others +it is willing to part with to those who question it closely, patiently, +and with intelligence. + +Among the former kind of secrets are those foul deeds that have been +perpetrated, in all ages, by abandoned men; when no human ears listened +to the stifled shriek, or the gurgling plunge; when no human eyes beheld +the murderous acts, the bloody decks, the blazing vessels, or the final +hiss of the sinking wrecks. + +Among the latter kind of secrets are the lives and habits of the +creatures of the deep, and the causes and effects of those singular +currents of air and water, which, to the eye of ignorance, seem to be +nothing better than irregularity and confusion; but which, to the minds +of those who search them out, and have pleasure therein, are recognised +as a part of that wonderful, orderly, and systematic arrangement of +things that we call Nature: much of which we now know, more of which we +shall certainly know, as each day and year adds its quota to the sum of +human knowledge; but a great deal of which will, doubtless, remain for +ever hidden in the mind of nature's God, whose ways are wonderful, and +past finding out. It is the latter class of secrets to which we purpose +directing the readers attention in the following pages. + +On approaching so vast a subject, we feel like the traveller who, +finding himself suddenly transported into the midst of a new and +magnificent region, stands undecided whither to direct his steps in the +endlessly varied scene. Or, still more, like the visitor to our great +International Exhibition of _1862_, who,--entering abruptly that +gigantic palace, where were represented the talent, the ingenuity, time +wealth, and industry of every people and clime,--attempts, in vain, to +systematise his explorations, or to fix his attention. It is probable +that, in each of these supposed cases, the traveller and visitor, +resigning the desire to achieve what is impossible, would give +themselves up to the agreeable guidance of a wandering and wayward +fancy. + +Let us, reader, act in a somewhat similar manner. Let us touch here, +and there, and everywhere, on the wonders of the sea, and listen to such +notes of the Ocean's Voice as strike upon our ears most pleasantly. + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +COMPOSITION OF THE SEA--ITS SALTS--POWER AND USES OF WATER--ADVANTAGE +AND DISADVANTAGE OF SALTS--ANECDOTE--DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS--BROOKES +APPARATUS--IMPORTANCE OF THE SEARCH AFTER TRUTH--ILLUSTRATIONS-- +DISCOVERIES RESULTING FROM DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS. + +Before proceeding to the consideration of the wonders connected with and +contained in the sea, we shall treat of the composition of the sea +itself and of its extent, depth, and bottom. + +What is the sea made of? Salt water, is the ready reply that rises +naturally to every lip. But to this we add the question,--What is salt +water? or, as there are many kinds of salt water, of what sort of salt +water does the sea consist? To these queries we give the following +reply, which, we doubt not, will rather surprise some of our readers. + +Fresh water, as most people are aware, is composed of two gases--oxygen +and hydrogen. Sea water is composed of the same gases, with the +addition of muriate of soda, magnesia, iron, lime, sulphur, copper, +silex, potash, chlorine, iodine, bromine, ammonia, and silver. What a +dose! Let bathers think of it next time they swallow a gulp of sea +water. + +Most of these substances, however, exist in comparatively small quantity +in the sea, with the exception of muriate of soda, or common table salt; +of which, as all bathers know from bitter experience, there is a very +considerable quantity. The quantity of silver contained in sea water is +very small indeed. Nevertheless, small though it be, the ocean is so +immense, that, it has been calculated, if all the silver in it were +collected, it would form a mass that would weigh about two hundred +million tons! + +The salt of the ocean varies considerably in different parts. Near the +equator, the great heat carries up a larger proportion of water by +evaporation than in the more temperate regions; and thus, as salt is not +removed by evaporation, the ocean in the torrid zone is salter than in +the temperate or frigid zones. + +The salts of the sea, and other substances contained in it, are conveyed +thither by the fresh-water streams that pour into it from all the +continent of the world. Maury, in his delightful work, "The Physical +Geography of the Sea," tells us that "water is Nature's great carrier. +With its currents it conveys heat away from the torrid zone, and ice +from the frigid; or, bottling the caloric away in the vesicle of its +vapour, it first makes it impalpable, and then conveys it by unknown +paths to the most distant parts of the Earth. The materials of which +the coral builds the island, and the sea-conch its shell, are gathered +by this restless leveller from mountains, rocks, and valleys, in all +latitudes. Some it washes down from the Mountains of the Moon in +Africa, or out of the gold-fields of Australia, or from the mines of +Potosi; others from the battle-fields of Europe, or from the marble +quarries of ancient Greece and Rome. The materials thus collected, and +carried over falls and down rapids, are transported to the sea." + +Here, as these substances cannot be evaporated, they would accumulate to +such a degree as to render the ocean uninhabitable by living creatures, +had not God provided against this by the most beautiful compensation. +He has filled the ocean with innumerable animals and marine plants, +whose special duty it is to seize and make use of the substances thus +swept from the land, and reconvert them into solids. We cannot form an +adequate conception of the extent of the great work carried on +continually in this way; but we see part of it in the chalk cliffs, the +marl beds of the sea shore, and the coral islands of the South Seas,--of +which last more particular notice shall be taken in a succeeding +chapter. + +The operations of the ocean are manifold. Besides forming a great +reservoir, into which what may be termed the impurities of the land are +conveyed, it is, as has been shown, the great laboratory of Nature, +where these are reconverted, and the general balance restored. But we +cannot speak of these things without making passing reference to the +operations of water, as that wonder-working agent of which the ocean +constitutes but a part. + +Nothing in this world is ever lost or annihilated. As the ocean +receives all the water that flows from the land, so it returns that +water, fresh and pure, in the shape of vapour, to the skies; where, in +the form of clouds, it is conveyed to those parts of the earth where its +presence is most needed, and precipitated in the form of rain and dew, +fertilising the soil, replenishing rivers and lakes, penetrating the +earth's deep caverns; whence it bubbles up in the shape of springs, and, +after having gladdened the heart of man by driving his mills and causing +his food to grow, it finds its way again into the sea: and thus the good +work goes on with ceaseless regularity. + +Water beats upon the rocks of the sea-shore until it pounds them into +sand, or rolls them into pebbles and boulders. It also sweeps the rich +soil from the mountains into the valleys. In the form of snow it +clothes the surface of the temperate and frigid zones with a warm +mantle, which preserves vegetable life from the killing frosts of +winter. In the form of ice it splits asunder the granite hills; and in +the northern regions it forms great glaciers, or masses of solidified +snow, many miles in extent, and many hundred feet thick. These glaciers +descend by slow, imperceptible degrees, to the sea; their edges break +off and fall into it, and, floating southward, sometimes in great +mountainous masses, are seen by man in the shape of icebergs. +Frequently huge rocks, that have fallen upon these glaciers from cliffs +in the arctic regions, are carried by them to other regions, and are +deposited on flat beaches, far from their native cliffs. + +The saltness of the sea rendering it more dense, necessarily renders it +more buoyant, than fresh water. This is obviously a great advantage to +man in the matter of commerce. A ship does not sink so deep in the sea +as it does in a fresh-water lake; hence it can carry more cargo with +greater facility. It is easier to swim in salt than in fresh water. + +The only disadvantage to commerce in the saltness of the sea is the +consequent unfitness of its water for drinking. Many and harrowing are +the accounts of instances in which sailors have been reduced to the most +terrible extremities for want of fresh water; and many a time, since +navigation began, have men been brought to feel the dread reality of +that condition which is so forcibly expressed in the poem of the +"Ancient Mariner":-- + + "Water, water everywhere, + And not a drop to drink." + +Science, however, at length enabled us to overcome this disadvantage of +saltness. By the process of distillation, men soon managed to procure +enough water at least to save their lives. One captain of a ship, by +accident, lost all his fresh water; and, before he could put into port +to replenish, a gale of wind, which lasted three weeks, drove him far +out to sea. He had no distilling apparatus on board, and it seemed as +if all hope of the crew escaping the most horrible of deaths were +utterly taken away. In this extremity the captain's inventive genius +came to his aid. He happened to have on board an old iron pitch-pot, +with a wooden cover. Using this as a boiler, a pipe made of a pewter +plate, and a wooden cask as a receiver, he set to work, filled the pot +with sea water, put an ounce of soap therein to assist in purifying it, +and placed it on the fire. When the pot began to boil, the steam passed +through the pipe into the cask, where it was condensed into water, minus +the saline particles, which, not being evaporable, were left behind in +the pitch-pot. In less than an hour a quart of fresh water was thus +obtained; which, though not very palatable, was sufficiently good to +relieve the thirst of the ship's crew. Many ships are now regularly +supplied with apparatus for distilling sea water; and on the African +coasts and other unhealthy stations, where water is bad, the men of our +navy drink no other water than that which is distilled from the sea. + +The salts of the ocean have something to do with the creating of oceanic +currents; which, in their turn, have a powerful influence on climates. +They also retard evaporation to some extent, and have some effect in +giving to the sea its beautiful blue colour. + +The ocean covers about two-thirds of the entire surface of the Earth. +Its depth has never been certainly ascertained; but from the numberless +experiments and attempts that have been made, we are warranted in coming +to the conclusion that it nowhere exceeds five miles in depth, probably +does not quite equal that. Professor Wyville Thompson estimates the +average depth of the sea at about two miles. + +Of the three great oceans into which the sea is naturally divided--the +Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Arctic--the Atlantic is supposed to be +the deepest. There are profundities in its bosom which have never yet +been sounded, and probably never will be. + +The difficulty of sounding great depths arises from the fact that, after +a large quantity of line has been run out, the shock of the lead +striking the bottom cannot be felt. Moreover, there is sufficient force +in the deep-sea currents to sweep out the line after the lead has +reached the bottom so that, with the ordinary sounding-lines in use +among navigators, it is impossible to sound great depths. Scientific +men have, therefore, taxed their brains to invent instruments for +sounding the deep sea--for touching the bottom in what sailors call +"blue water." Some have tried it with a silk thread as a plumb-line, +some with spun-yarn threads, and various other materials and +contrivances. It has even been tried by exploding petards and ringing +bells in the deep sea, when it was supposed that an echo or +reverberation might be heard, and, from the known rate at which sound +travels through water, the depth might thus be ascertained. Deep-sea +leads have been constructed having a column of air in them, which, by +compression, would show the aqueous pressure to which they had been +subjected; but the trial proved to be more than the instrument could +stand. + +Captain Maury, of the American Navy--whose interesting book has been +already referred to--invented an instrument for sounding the deep sea. +Here is his own description of it:--"To the lead was attached, upon the +principle of the screw-propeller, a small piece of clock-work for +registering the number of revolutions made by the little screw during +the descent; and it having been ascertained by experiment in shoal water +that the apparatus, in descending, would cause the propeller to make one +revolution for every fathom of perpendicular descent, hands provided +with the power of self-registering were attached to a dial, and the +instrument was complete. It worked beautifully in moderate depths, but +failed in blue water, from the difficulty of hauling it up if the line +used were small, and from the difficulty of getting it down if the line +used were large enough to give the requisite strength for hauling it +up." One eccentric old sea captain proposed to sound the sea with a +torpedo, or shell, which should explode the instant it touched the +bottom. Another gentleman proposed to try it by the magnetic telegraph, +and designed an instrument which should telegraph to the expectant +measurers above how it was getting on in the depths below. But all +these ingenious devices failed, and it is probable that the deepest +parts of the ocean-bed still remained untouched by man. + +At last an extremely simple and remarkably successful deep-sea sounding +apparatus was invented by Mr Brooke, an American officer. It consisted +of nothing more than thin twine for a sounding-line, and a cannon ball +for a sinker. The twine was made for the purpose, fine but very strong, +and was wound on a reel to the extent of ten thousand fathoms. The +cannon ball, which was from thirty-two to sixty-eight pounds' weight, +had a hole quite through it, into which was fixed a sliding rod, the end +of which, covered with grease, projected several inches beyond the ball. +By an ingenious and simple contrivance, the cannon ball was detached +when it reached the bottom of the sea, and the light rod was drawn up +with specimens of the bottom adhering to the grease. + +With this instrument the Americans went to work with characteristic +energy, and, by always using a line of the same size and make, and a +sinker of the same shape and weight, they at last ascertained the law of +descent. This was an important achievement, because, having become +familiar with the precise rate of descent at all depths, they were +enabled to tell very nearly when the ball ceased to carry out the line, +and when it began to go out in obedience to the influence of deep-sea +currents. The greatest depth reached by Brooke's sounding-line is said +to have been a little under five miles in the North Atlantic. + +The value of investigations of this kind does not appear at first sight, +to unscientific men. But those who have paid even a little attention to +the methods and processes by which grand discoveries have been made, and +useful inventions have been perfected, can scarcely have failed to come +to the conclusion that _the search after_ TRUTH, _pure and simple, of +any kind, and of every kind, either with or without reference to a +particular end_, is one of the most useful as well as elevating pursuits +in which man can engage. + +_All_ truth is worth knowing and labouring after. No one can tell to +what useful results the discovery of even the smallest portion of truth +may lead. Some of the most serviceable and remarkable inventions of +modern times have been the result of discoveries of truths which at +first seemed to have no bearing whatever on those inventions. When +James Watt sat with busy reflective mind staring at a boiling kettle, +and discovered the expansive power of steam, no one could have for a +moment imagined that in the course of years the inventions founded on +the truth then discovered would result in the systematic driving of a +fleet of floating palaces all round the world at the rate of from twelve +to fifteen or twenty miles an hour! Instances of a similar kind might +be multiplied without end. In like manner, deep-sea sounding may lead +to great, as yet unimagined, results. Although yet in its infancy, it +has already resulted in the discovery of a comparatively shallow plateau +or ridge in the North Atlantic Ocean, rising between Ireland and +Newfoundland; a discovery which has been turned to practical account, +inasmuch as the plateau has been chosen to be the bed of our electric +telegraph between Europe and America. The first Atlantic cable was laid +on it; and although that cable suffered many vicissitudes at first, as +most contrivances do in their beginnings, communication between the two +continents was successfully established. Soundings taken elsewhere +showed that somewhat similar plateaus existed in other parts of the +Atlantic, and now the whole of Western Europe is being bound more +firmly, by additional cables, to the eastern seaboard of America. + +This great and glorious achievement has been the result of the discovery +of two truths,--of a truth in science on the one hand, and a truth in +regard to the structure of the bed of the sea on the other. The study +of electricity and of deep-sea soundings was begun and carried on for +the sake of the discovery of _truth_ alone, and without the most distant +reference to the Atlantic Telegraph,--yet that telegraph has been one of +the results of that study. Who can tell how many more shall follow? +And even were no other result ever to follow, this one may prove to be +of the most stupendous importance to the human race. + +Another discovery that has been made by deep-sea sounding is, that the +lowest depths of the ocean are always in a state of profound calm. +Oceanic storms do not extend to the bottom. When the tempest is lashing +the surface of the sea into a state of the most violent and tremendous +agitation, the caverns of the deep are wrapped in perfect repose. This +has been ascertained from the fact that in many places the bottom of the +sea, as shown by the specimens brought up by Brooke's apparatus, and +more recently by Professor Thompson's deep-sea dredge, is composed of +exceedingly minute shells of marine insects. These shells, when +examined by the microscope, are found to be unbroken and perfect, though +so fragile that they must certainly have been broken to pieces had they +ever been subjected to the influence of currents, or to the pulverising +violence of waves. Hence the conclusion that the bottom of the sea is +in a state of perpetual rest and placidity. + +Indeed, when we think of it, we are led to conclude that this must +necessarily be the case. There are, as we shall presently show, +currents of vast size and enormous power constantly flowing through the +ocean; and when we think of the tremendous power of running water to cut +through the solid rock, as exemplified in the case of Niagara, and many +other rivers, what would be the result of the action of currents in the +sea, compared with which Niagara is but a tiny rivulet? Ocean currents, +then, flow on a bed of still water, that protects the bottom of the sea +from forces which, by calculation, we know would long ago have torn up +the foundations of the deep, and would probably have destroyed the whole +economy of nature, had not this beautiful arrangement been provided by +the all-wise Creator. + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +WAVES--SYSTEM IN ALL THINGS--VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE--ILLUSTRATIVE +ANECDOTE--HEIGHT OF WAVES--DR. SCORESBY--SIZE, VELOCITY, AND AWFUL POWER +OF WAVES--ANECDOTES REGARDING THEM--TIDES. + +When a man stands on the deck of some tight-built ship, holding on to +the weather bulwarks, and gazing with unphilosophic eye through the +blinding spray at the fury of the tempest--by which the billows are made +to roll around him like liquid mountains, and the ship is tossed beneath +him like a mere chip, the sport and plaything of the raging waters--he +is apt to think, should his thoughts turn in that direction at all, that +all is unmitigated confusion; that the winds, which blew west yesterday +and blow east to-day,--shifting, it may be, with gusty squalls, now +here, now there, in chaotic fury,--are actuated by no laws, governed by +no directing power. + +Yet no thought could be more unphilosophical than this. Apart +altogether from divine revelation, by which we are informed that "all +deeps, fire, and hail, snow, and vapour, and stormy wind," are +"fulfilling God's word" (which information we are bound to receive as a +matter of faith if we be Christians, and as a matter of necessity if we +be men of common sense, because it is mere absurdity to suppose that the +"stormy winds," etcetera, are _not_ fulfilling God's word--or will), we +now know, to a great extent from practical experience and scientific +investigation, that the winds blow and the waters of the ocean flow in +grand, regular, uninterrupted currents. Amongst these there are +numberless eddies, which, perhaps, have tended to fill our minds with +the idea of irregularity and confusion; but which, nevertheless, as well +as the grand currents themselves, are subject to law, and are utterly +devoid of caprice. + +In regard to these matters there is much about which we are still in +ignorance. But the investigations of late years--especially those +conducted under the superintendence of Captain Maury of the American +Navy, and Doctors Carpenter and Thompson of England--have shown that our +atmosphere and our ocean act in accordance with a systematic +arrangement, many facts regarding which have been discovered, and +turned, in some cases, to practical account. See Note 1. + +A very interesting instance of the practical use to which scientific +inquiry can be turned, even in its beginnings, is given by Maury. After +telling us of the existence and nature of a current in the ocean called +the Gulf Stream, he gives the following account of the manner in which +upon one occasion be made use of his theoretical knowledge. + +In the month of December 1853, the fine steam-ship _San Francisco_ +sailed from New York with a regiment of United States troops on board, +bound for California by way of Cape Horn. She was overtaken, while +crossing the Gulf Stream, by a gale of wind, in which she was dreadfully +crippled. Her decks were swept, and, by one single blow of those +terrible seas that the storms raise in the Gulf Stream, more than in any +other part of the Atlantic, one hundred and seventy-nine souls, officers +and soldiers, were washed overboard and drowned. + +The day after this disaster she was seen by one vessel, and again, the +next day, December 26th, by another; but neither of them could render +her any assistance. + +When these two vessels arrived in the United States and reported what +they had seen, the most painful apprehensions were entertained by +friends for the safety of those on board the steamer. Vessels were sent +out to search for and relieve her. But where should these vessels go? +Where should they look? + +An appeal was made to know what light the system of researches carried +on at the National Observatory concerning winds and currents could throw +upon the subject. + +The materials they had been discussing were examined, and a chart was +prepared to show the course of the Gulf Stream at that season of the +year. Two revenue cutters were then appointed to proceed to sea in +search of the steamer, and Maury was requested to "furnish them with +instructions." + +It will be observed here that the gentleman thus appealed to was at the +time engaged in his study at Washington, utterly ignorant of all that +had occurred within the previous few weeks on the stormy Atlantic, +except through the reports brought thence by ships. These reports +furnished him with meagre data to proceed upon--simply that a crippled +steamer had been seen in a certain latitude and longitude on a +particular day. + +But this information was sufficient for the practical man of science. +Proceeding upon the supposition that the steamer had been completely +disabled, he drew two lines on the chart to define the limits of her +drift. This his previous knowledge of the flow of the Gulf Stream at +all seasons of the year enabled him to do. Between these two lines, he +said, the steamer, if she could neither steam nor sail after the gale, +had drifted. And that she could neither steam nor sail he had good +reason to suppose from the account of her brought in by the vessels +above mentioned. A certain point was marked on the chart as being the +spot where the searching vessels might expect to fall in with the wreck. + +While these preparations were being made, two ships fell in with the +wreck and relieved the crew. This, however, was not known at the time +by the anxious friends on shore. The cutters sailed on their mission, +and reached the indicated spot in the sea, where, of course, their +assistance was now unnecessary. But when the vessels that had relieved +the crew of the wreck arrived in harbour and reported where the wreck +had been last seen, it was found to be within a few miles of the spot +indicated by Maury! + +Thus, upon very slight data, a man of science and observation was +enabled, while seated in his study, to follow the drift of a wrecked +vessel over the pathless deep, and to indicate to a rescue party, not +only the exact course they ought to steer, but the precise spot where +the wreck should be found. + +The waves of the ocean are by no means so high as people imagine. Their +appearance in the Atlantic or Pacific, when raised by a violent storm, +is indeed very awful, and men have come to speak of them as being +"mountains of water." But their sublime aspect and their tumultuous +state of agitation have contributed much to deceive superficial +observers as to their real height. Scientific men have measured the +height of the waves. + +Not many years ago a vessel, while crossing the Atlantic, was overtaken +by a violent storm. The sea rose in its might; the good ship reeled +under the combined influence of wind and waves. While the majority of +the passengers sought refuge from the driving spray in the cabin, one +eccentric old gentleman was seen skipping about the deck with unwonted +activity--now on the bulwarks, now on the quarter-deck, and anon in the +rigging; utterly regardless of the drenching sea and the howling wind, +and seeming as though he were a species of human stormy petrel. This +was the celebrated Dr Scoresby; a man who had spent his youth and +manhood in the whale-fishing; who, late in life, entered the Church, +and, until the day of his death, took a special delight in directing the +attention of sailors to Him whose word stilled the tempest and bade the +angry waves be calm. Being an enthusiast in scientific research, Dr +Scoresby was availing himself of the opportunity afforded by this storm +to _measure the waves_! Others have made similar measurements, and the +result goes to prove that waves seldom or never rise much more than ten +feet above the sea-level. The corresponding depression sinks to the +same depth, thus giving the entire height of the largest waves an +elevation of somewhere between twenty and thirty feet. When it is +considered that sometimes the waves of the sea (especially those off the +Cape of Good Hope) are so broad that only a few of them occupy the space +of a mile, and that they travel at the rate of about forty miles an +hour, we may have some slight idea of the grandeur as well as the power +of the ocean billows. The forms represented in our illustration are +only wavelets on the backs of these monster waves. + +Waves travel at a rate which increases in proportion to their size and +the depth of water in which they are formed. Every one knows that on +most lakes they are comparatively small and harmless. In some lakes, +however, such as Lake Superior in North America, which is upwards of +three hundred miles long, the waves are so formidable as to resemble +those of the ocean, and they are capable of producing tremendous +effects. But the waves of the sea, when roused to their greatest +height, and travelling at their greatest speed, are terrible to behold. +Their force is absolutely irresistible. Sometimes waves of more than +usually gigantic proportions arise, and, after careering over the broad +sea in unimpeded majesty, fall with crushing violence on some doomed +shore. They rush onward, pass the usual barriers of the sea-beach, and +do not retire until horrible devastation has been carried far into the +land. + +Maury gives the following anecdote from the notes of a Russian officer, +which shows the awful power of such waves. + +"On the 23rd of December 1854, at 9:45 a.m., the shocks of an earthquake +were felt on board the Russian frigate _Diana_, as she lay at anchor in +the harbour of Simoda, not far from Jeddo in Japan. In fifteen minutes +afterwards (10 o'clock) a large wave was observed rolling into the +harbour, and the water on the beach to be rapidly rising. The town, as +seen from the frigate, appeared to be sinking. This wave was followed +by another; and when the two receded, which was at fifteen minutes past +ten, there was not a house, save an unfinished temple, left standing. +These waves continued to come and go until half-past two p.m., during +which time the frigate was thrown on her beam-ends five times; a piece +of her keel, eighty-one feet long, was torn off; holes were knocked in +her by striking on the bottom, and she was reduced to a wreck. In the +course of five minutes the water in the harbour fell, it is said, from +twenty-three to three feet, and the anchors of the ship were laid bare. +There was a great loss of life; many houses were washed into the sea, +and many junks carried up--one two miles inland--and dashed to pieces on +the shore. The day was beautifully fine, and no warning was given of +the approaching convulsion: the sea was perfectly smooth when its +surface was broken by the first wave." + +Monster waves of this kind occur at regular intervals, among the islands +of the Pacific, once and sometimes twice in the year; and this without +any additional influence of an earthquake, at least in the immediate +neighbourhood of the islands, though it is quite possible that +earthquakes in some remote part of the world may have something to do +with these waves. + +One such wave is described as breaking on one of these islands with +tremendous violence. It appeared at first like a dark line, or low +cloud, or fog-bank, on the sea-ward horizon. The day was fine though +cloudy, and a gentle breeze was blowing; but the sea was not rougher, or +the breaker on the coral reef that encircled the island higher, than +usual. It was supposed to be an approaching thunder-storm; but the line +gradually drew nearer without spreading upon the sky, as would have been +the case had it been a thunder-cloud. Still nearer it came, and soon +those on shore observed that it was moving swiftly towards the island; +but there was no sound until it reached the smaller islands out at sea. +As it passed these, a cloud of white foam encircled each and burst high +into the air. This appearance was soon followed by a loud roar, and it +became evident that the object was an enormous wave. When it approached +the outer reef, its awful magnitude became more evident. It burst +completely over the reef at all points, with a deep, continuous roar; +yet, although part of its force was thus broken, on it came, as if with +renewed might, and finally fell upon the beach with a crash that seemed +to shake the solid earth; then, rushing impetuously up into the woods, +it levelled the smaller trees and bushes in its headlong course; and, on +retiring, left a scene of wreck and desolation that is quite +indescribable. + +"Storm-waves," as those unusually gigantic billows are called, are said +to be the result of the removal of atmospheric pressure in certain parts +of the ocean over which a storm is raging. This removal of pressure +allows the portion thus relieved to be forced up high above the ordinary +sea-level by those other parts that are not so relieved. + +The devastating effects of these storm-waves is still further +illustrated by the total destruction of Coringa, on the Coromandel +Coast, in 1789. During a hurricane, in December of that year, at the +moment when a high tide was at its highest point, and the north-west +wind was blowing with fury, accumulating the waters at the head of the +bay, three monstrous waves came rolling in from the sea upon the devoted +town, following each other at a short distance. The horror-stricken +inhabitants had scarcely time to note the fact of their approach, when +the first wave, sweeping everything in its passage, carried several feet +of water into the town. The second swept still further in its +destructive course, inundating all the low country. The third, rushing +onward in irresistible fury, overwhelmed everything, submerging the town +and twenty thousand of its inhabitants. Vessels at anchor at the mouth +of the river were carried inland; and the sea on retiring left heaps of +sand and mud, which rendered it a hopeless task either to search for the +dead or for buried property. + +We have spoken of waves "travelling" at such and such a rate, but they +do not in reality travel at all. It is the undulation, or, so to speak, +the _motion_ of a wave, that travels; in the same manner that a wave +passes from one end of a carpet to the other end when it is shaken. The +water remains stationary, excepting the spray and foam on the surface, +and is only possessed of a rising and sinking motion. This undulatory +motion, or impulse, is transmitted from each particle of water to its +neighbouring particle, until it reaches the last drop of water on the +shore. But when a wave reaches shallow water it has no longer room to +sink to its proper depth; hence the water composing it acquires _actual_ +motion, and rushes to the land with more or less of the tremendous +violence that has been already described. + +Waves are caused by wind, which first ruffles the surface of the sea +into ripples, and then, acting with ever-increasing power on the little +surfaces thus raised, blows _them_ up into waves, and finally into great +billows. Sometimes, however, winds burst upon the calm ocean with such +sudden violence that for a time the waves cannot lift their heads. The +instant they do so, they are cast down and scattered in foam, and the +ocean in a few minutes presents the appearance of a cauldron of boiling +milk! Such squalls are extremely dangerous to mariners, and vessels +exposed to them are often thrown on their beam-ends, even though all +sail has been previously taken in. Generally speaking, however, the +immediate effect of wind passing either lightly or furiously over the +sea is to raise its surface into waves. But these waves, however large +they may be, do not affect the waters of the ocean more than a few yards +below its surface. The water below their influence is comparatively +calm, being affected only by ocean currents. + +The tides of the sea--as the two great flowings and ebbings of the water +every twenty-four hours are called--are caused principally by the +attractive influence of the moon, which, to a small extent, lifts the +waters of the ocean towards it, as it passes over them, and thus causes +a high wave. This wave, or current, when it swells up on the land, +forms high tide. When the moon's influence has completely passed away, +it is low tide. The moon raises this wave wherever it passes; not only +in the ocean directly under it, but, strange to say, it causes a similar +wave on the opposite side of the globe. Thus there are two waves always +following the moon, and hence the two high tides in the twenty-four +hours. This second wave has been accounted for in the following way: +The cohesion of particles of water is easily overcome. The moon, in +passing over the sea, separates the particles by her attractive power, +and draws the surface of the sea away from the solid globe. But the +moon also attracts the earth itself, and draws it away from the water on +its opposite side thus causing the high wave there, as represented in +the diagram, _figure 1_. + +The sun has also a slight influence on the tides, but not to such an +extent as the moon. When the two luminaries exert their combined +influence in the same direction, they produce the phenomenon of a very +high or spring-tide, as in _figure 2_, where the tide at _a_ and _b_ has +risen extremely high, while at _c_ and _d_ it has fallen correspondingly +low. When they act in opposition to each other, as at the moon's +quarter, there occurs a very low or neap-tide. In _figure 3_ the moon +has raised high tide at _a_ and _b_, but the sun has counteracted its +influence to some extent at _c_ and _d_, thus producing neap-tides, +which neither rise so high nor fall so low as do other tides. Tides +attain various elevations in different parts of the world, partly owing +to local influences. In the Bristol Channel the tide rises to nearly +sixty feet, while in the Mediterranean it is extremely small, owing to +the landlocked nature of that sea preventing the tidal wave from having +its full effect. Up some gulfs and estuaries the tides sweep with the +violence of a torrent, and any one caught by them on the shore would be +overtaken and drowned before he could gain the dry land. In the open +sea they rise and fall to an elevation of little more than three or four +feet. + +The value of the tides is unspeakable. They sweep from our shores +pollution of every kind, purify our rivers and estuaries, and are +productive of freshness and health all round the world. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The gentlemen here referred to are agreed as to the fact of systematic +arrangement of currents, though they differ in regard to some of the +causes thereof and other matters. + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +THE GULF STREAM--ITS NATURE--CAUSE--ILLUSTRATION--EFFECT OF SMALL POWERS +UNITED--ADVENTURES OF A PARTICLE OF WATER--EFFECT OF GULF STREAM ON +CLIMATE--ITS COURSE--INFLUENCE ON NAVIGATION--SARGASSO SEA--SCIENTIFIC +EFFORTS OF PRESENT DAY--WIND AND CURRENT CHARTS--EFFECTS ON COMMERCE-- +CAUSE OF STORMS--INFLUENCE OF GULF STREAM ON MARINE ANIMALS. + +Of the varied motions of the sea, the most important, perhaps, as well +as the most wonderful, is the Gulf Stream. This mighty current has been +likened by Maury to a "river in the ocean. In the severest droughts it +never fails, and in the mightiest floods it never overflows. Its banks +and its bottom are of cold water, while its current is of warm. It +takes its rise in the Gulf of Mexico (hence its name), and empties into +the arctic seas. Its current is more rapid than the Mississippi or the +Amazon, and its volume more than a thousand times greater." + +This great current is of the most beautiful indigo-blue colour as far +out as the Carolina coasts; and its waters are so distinctly separated +from those of the sea, that the line of demarcation may be traced by the +eye. Its influences on the currents of the sea, and on the climates and +the navigation of the world, are so great and important, that we think a +somewhat particular account of it cannot fail to interest the reader. + +The waters of the Gulf Stream are salter than those of the sea; which +fact accounts for its deeper blue colour, it being well known that salt +has the effect of intensifying the blue of deep water. + +The cause of the Gulf Stream has long been a subject of conjecture and +dispute among philosophers. Some have maintained that the Mississippi +river caused it; but this theory is upset by the fact that the stream is +salt--salter even than the sea--while the river is fresh. Besides, the +volume of water emptied into the Gulf of Mexico by that river is not +equal to the _three thousandth part_ of that which issues from it in the +form of the Gulf Stream. + +Scientific men are still disagreed on this point. They all, indeed, +seem to hold the opinion that _difference of temperature_ has to do with +the origination of the stream; but while some, such as Captain Maury, +hold that this is the _chief_ cause, others, such as Professor Thompson, +believe the trade-winds to be the most important agent in the matter. +We venture to incline to the opinion that not only the Gulf Stream, but +_all_ the constant currents of the sea are due chiefly to _difference of +temperature and saltness_. These conditions alter the specific gravity +of the waters of the ocean in some places more than in others; hence the +equilibrium is destroyed, and currents commence to flow as a natural +result, seeking to restore that equilibrium. But as the disturbing +agents are always at work, so the currents are of necessity constant. +Other currents there are in the sea, but they are the result of winds +and various local causes; they are therefore temporary and partial, +while the _great_ currents of the ocean are permanent, and are, +comparatively, little affected by the winds. Every one knows that when +a pot is put on the fire to boil, the water contained in it, as soon as +it begins to get heated, commences to circulate. The heated water rises +to the top, the cold descends. When heated more than that which has +ascended, it in turn rises to the surface; and so there is a regular +current established in the pot, which continues to flow as long as the +heating process goes on. This same principle of temperature, then, is +one of the causes of the Gulf Stream. The torrid zone is the furnace +where the waters of the ocean are heated. But in this process of +heating, evaporation goes on to a large extent; hence the waters become +salter than those elsewhere. Here is another agent called into action. +The hot salt waters of the torrid zone at once rush off to distribute +their superabundant caloric and salt to the seas of the frigid zones; +where the ice around the poles has kept the waters cold, and the absence +of great heat, and, to a large extent, of evaporation, has kept them +comparatively fresh. In fact, the waters of the sea require to be +stirred, because numerous agents are at work day and night, from pole to +pole, altering their specific gravity and deranging, so to speak, the +mixture. This stirring is secured by the unalterable laws which the +Creator has fixed for the carrying on of the processes of nature. The +currents of the sea may be said to be the result of this process of +stirring its waters. + +It is curious and interesting to note the apparently insignificant +instruments which God has seen fit to use in the carrying out of his +plans. The smallest coral insect that builds its little cell in the +southern seas exercises an influence in the production of the Gulf +Stream. It has been said, with some degree of truth, that one such +insect is capable of setting in motion the entire ocean! The coral +insect has, in common with many other marine creatures, been gifted with +the power of extracting from sea water the lime which it contains, in +order to build its cell. The lime thus extracted leaves a minute +particle of water necessarily destitute of that substance. Before that +particle can be restored to its original condition of equality, every +other particle of water in the ocean must part with a share of its +superabundant lime! The thing _must_ be done. That bereaved particle +cannot rest without its lime. It forthwith commences to travel for the +purpose of laying its brother-particles under contribution; and it +travels far and wide--round and round the world. Myriads upon myriads +of coral insects are perpetually engaged in thus robbing the sea water +of its lime; shells are formed in a similar manner: so that our particle +soon finds itself in company with innumerable other particles of water +in a like destitute condition. It rises to the surface. Here the sun, +as if to compensate it for the loss of its lime, bestows upon it an +unusual amount of heat; and the surrounding particles, not to be +outdone, make it almost unlimited presents of salt. Full to overflow +with the gifts of its new companions, it hastens to bestow of its +superabundance on less favoured particles; joins the great army of the +ocean's currents; enters, perchance, the Gulf of Mexico, where it is +turned back, and hastens along with the Gulf Stream, with all its +natural warmth of character, to ameliorate the climate of Great Britain +and the western shores of Europe. Having accomplished this benevolent +work, it passes on, with some of its heat and vigour still remaining, to +the arctic seas--where it is finally robbed of all its heat and nearly +all its salt, and frozen into an icicle--there for many a long day to +exert a chilling influence on the waters and the atmosphere around it. +Being melted at last by the hot sun of the short arctic summer, it +hurries back with the cold currents of the north to the genial regions +of the equator, in search of its lost caloric and salt, taking in a full +cargo of lime, etcetera, as it passes the mouths of rivers. Arrived at +its old starting-point, our wanderer receives once more heat and salt to +the full, parts with its lime, and at once hastens off on a new voyage +of usefulness--to give out of its superabundance in exchange for the +superabundance of others: thus quietly teaching man the lesson that the +true principles of commerce were carried out in the depths of the sea +ages before he discovered them and carried them into practice on its +surface. + +Perchance another fate awaits this adventurous particle of water. +Mayhap, before it reaches the cold regions of the north, it is +evaporated into the clouds, and descends upon the earth in fresh and +refreshing rain or dew. Having fertilised the fields, it flows back to +its parent ocean, laden with a superabundant cargo of earthy substances, +which it soon parts with in exchange for salt. And thus on it goes, +round and round the world; down in the ocean's depths, up in the cloudy +sky, deep in the springs of earth; ever moving, ever active, never lost, +and always fulfilling the end for which it was created. + +All ocean currents are composed of water in one or other of the +conditions just described;--the hot and salt waters of the equator, +flowing north to be cooled and freshened; the cold and fresh waters of +the north, flowing south to be heated and salted. The Gulf Stream is +simply the stream of equatorial hot water that flows towards the pole +through the Atlantic. Its fountain-head is the region of the equator, +_not_ the Gulf of Mexico; but it is carried, by the conformation of the +land, into that gulf and deflected by it, and from it out into the ocean +in the direction of Europe. This stream in the Atlantic is well +defined, owing to the comparative narrowness of that sea. + +The Gulf Stream, then, is like a river of oil in the ocean,--it +preserves its distinctive character for more than three thousand miles. +It flows towards the polar regions, and the waters of those regions flow +in counter-currents towards the equator, because of the fixed law that +water must seek its equilibrium as well as its level, thus keeping up a +continuous circulation of the hot waters towards the north and the cold +towards the south. There are similar currents in the Pacific, but they +are neither so large nor so regular as those of the Atlantic, owing to +the wide formation of the basin of the former sea. + +The effect of the Gulf Stream on climate is very great. The dreary +fur-trading establishment of York Factory, on the shores of Hudson's +Bay, is surrounded by a climate of the most rigorous character--the +thermometer seldom rising up so high as zero during many months, and +often ranging down so low as 50 degrees below zero, sometimes even +lower, while the winter is seven or eight months long: the lakes and +rivers are covered with ice upwards of six feet thick, and the salt sea +itself is frozen. Yet this region lies in the same latitude with +Scotland, York Factory being on the parallel of 57 degrees north, which +passes close to Aberdeen! The difference in temperature between the two +places is owing very much, if not entirely, to the influence of the Gulf +Stream. + +Starting from its caldron in the Gulf of Mexico, it carries a freight of +caloric towards the North Atlantic. Owing partly to the diurnal motion +of the Earth on its axis, its flow trends towards the east; hence its +warm waters embrace our favoured coasts, and ameliorate our climate, +while the eastern sea-board of North America is left, in winter, to the +rigour of unmitigated frost. + +But besides the powerful influence of this current on climate, it exerts +a very considerable influence on navigation. In former times, when men +regarded the ocean as a great watery waste--utterly ignorant of the +exquisite order and harmonious action of all the varied substances and +conditions which prevail in the sea, just as much as on the land--they +committed themselves to the deep as to a blind chance, and took the +storms and calms they encountered as their inevitable fate, which they +had no means of evading. Ascertaining, as well as they could from the +imperfect charts of those days, the position of their desired haven, +they steered straight for it through fair weather and foul, regarding +interruptions and delays as mere unavoidable matters of course. + +But when men began to study the causes and effects of the operation of +those elements in the midst of which they dwelt, they soon perceived +that order reigned where before they had imagined that confusion +revelled; and that, by adapting their operations to the ascertained laws +of Providence, they could, even upon the seemingly unstable sea, avoid +dangers and delays of many kinds, and oftentimes place themselves in +highly favourable circumstances. Navigators no longer dash recklessly +into the Gulf Stream, and try to stem its tide, as they did of yore; +but, as circumstances require, they either take advantage of the +counter-currents which skirt along it, or avail themselves of the warm +climate which it creates even in the midst of winter. There is a +certain spot in the Atlantic known by the name of the Sargasso Sea, +which is neither more nor less than a huge ocean-eddy, in which immense +quantities of sea-weed collect. The weed floats so thickly on the +surface as to give to the sea the appearance of solid land; and ships +find extreme difficulty in getting through this region, which is +rendered still further unnavigable by the prevalence of long-continued +calms. This Sargasso Sea is of considerable extent, and lies off the +west coast of Africa, a little to the north of the Cape Verd Islands. + +In former years, ships used to get entangled in this weedy region for +weeks together, unable to proceed on their voyage. The great Columbus +fell in with it on his voyage to America, and his followers, thinking +they had reached the end of the world, were filled with consternation. +This Sargasso Sea lies in the same spot at the present day, but men now +know its extent and position. Instead of steering straight for port, +they proceed a considerable distance out of their way, and, by avoiding +this calm region, accomplish their voyages with much greater speed. + +The ocean currents have been, by repeated and long-continued +investigation, ascertained and mapped out; so also have the currents of +the atmosphere, so that, now-a-days, by taking advantage of some of +these currents and avoiding others, voyages are performed, not only in +much shorter time, but with much greater precision and certainty. As it +was with ocean currents long ago, so was it with atmospheric. +Navigators merely put to sea, steered as near as possible on their +direct course, and took advantage of such winds as chanced to blow. Now +they know whither to steer in order to meet with such winds and currents +as will convey them in the shortest space of time to the end of their +voyage. The knowledge necessary to this has not been gained by the +gigantic effort of one mind, nor by the accidental collocation of the +results of the investigations of many ordinary minds. But a few +master-minds have succeeded in gathering within their own grasp the +myriad facts collected by thousands of naval men, of all countries, in +their various voyages; and, by a careful comparison and philosophical +investigation of these facts, they have ascertained and systematised +truths which were before unknown, and have constructed wind and current +charts, by the use of which voyages are wonderfully shortened, +commercial enterprises greatly facilitated, and the general good and +comfort of nations materially advanced. + +The truth of this has of late been proved by incontestable facts. For +instance, one year particular note was taken of the arrival of all the +vessels at the port of San Francisco, in California; and it was found +that of 124 vessels from the Atlantic coast of the United States, 70 +were possessed of Maury's wind and current charts. The average passage +of these 70 vessels, on that long voyage round Cape Horn, was 135 days; +while the average of those that sailed _without_ the charts (that is, +trusted to their own unaided wisdom and experience) was 146 days. +Between England and Australia the average length of the voyage out used, +very recently, to be 124 days. With the aid of these charts it has now +been reduced to 97 days on the average. + +The saving to commerce thus achieved is much greater than one would +suppose. At the risk of becoming tedious to uninquiring readers, we +will make a brief extract from Hunt's "Merchants' Magazine" of 1854, as +given in a foot-note in Maury's "Physical Geography of the Sea." + +"Now, let us make a calculation of the annual saving to the commerce of +the United States effected by these charts and sailing directions. +According to Mr Maury, the average freight from the United States to +Rio Janeiro is 17.7 cents per ton per day; to Australia, 20 cents; to +California, also about 20 cents. The mean of this is a little over 19 +cents per ton per day; but, to be within the mark, we will take it at +15, and include all the ports of South America, China, and the East +Indies. + +"The sailing directions have shortened the passage to California 30 +days; to Australia, 20; to Rio Janeiro, 10. The mean of this is 20; but +we will take it at 15, and also include the above-named ports of South +America, China, and the East Indies. + +"We estimate the tonnage of the United States engaged in trade with +these places at 1,000,000 tons per annum. + +"With these data, we see that there has been effected a saving for each +one of these tons, of 15 cents per day for a period of 15 days, which +will give an aggregate of 2,250,000 dollars (468,750 pounds) saved per +annum. This is on the outward voyage alone, and the tonnage trading +with all other parts of the world is also left out of the calculation. +Take these into consideration, and also the fact that there is a vast +amount of foreign tonnage trading between these places and the United +States, and it will be seen that the annual sum saved will swell to an +enormous amount." + +Before the existence of the Gulf Stream was ascertained, vessels were +frequently drifted far out of their course in cloudy or foggy weather, +without the fact being known, until the clearing away of the mists +enabled the navigators to ascertain their position by solar observation. +Now, not only the existence, but the exact limits and action of this +stream are known and mapped; so that the current, which was formerly a +hindrance to navigation, is now made to be a help to it. The line of +demarcation between the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and the cold +waters of the sea is so sharp and distinct, that by the use of the +thermometer the precise minute of a ship's leaving or entering it can be +ascertained. And by the simple application of the thermometer to the +Gulf Stream the average passage from England to America has been reduced +from upwards of eight weeks to little more than four! + +But this wonderful current is useful to navigators in more ways than +one. Its waters, being warm, carry a mild climate along with them +through the ocean even in the depth of winter, and thus afford a region +of shelter to vessels when attempting to make the Atlantic coast of +North America, which, at that season is swept by furious storms and +chilled by bitter frosts. The Atlantic coasts of the United States are +considered to be the most stormy in the world during winter, and the +difficulty of making them used to be much greater in former days than +now. The number of wrecks that take place off the shores of New England +in mid-Winter is frightful. All down that coast flows one of the great +cold currents from the north. The combined influence of the cold +atmosphere above it, and the warm atmosphere over the Gulf Stream, far +out at sea, produces terrific gales. The month's average of wrecks off +that coast has been as high as three a day. In making the coast, +vessels are met frequently by snow-storms, which clothe the rigging with +ice, rendering it unmanageable, and chill the seaman's frame, so that he +cannot manage his ship or face the howling blast. Formerly, when unable +to make the coast, owing to the fury of these bitter westerly gales, he +knew of no place of refuge short of the West Indies, whither he was +often compelled to run, and there await the coming of genial spring ere +he again attempted to complete his voyage. Now, however, the region of +the Gulf Stream is sought as a refuge. When the stiffened ropes refuse +to work, and the ship can no longer make head against the storm, she is +put about and steered for the Gulf Stream. In a few hours she reaches +its edge, and almost in a moment afterwards she passes from the midst of +winter into a sea of sunnier heat! "Now," as Maury beautifully +expresses it, "the ice disappears from her apparel; the sailor bathes +his limbs in tepid waters. Feeling himself invigorated and refreshed +with the genial warmth about him, he realises out there at sea the fable +of Antaeus and his mother Earth. He rises up and attempts to make his +port again, and is again, perhaps, as rudely met and beat back from the +north-west; but each time that he is driven off from the contest, he +comes forth from this stream, like the ancient son of Neptune, stronger +and stronger, until, after many days, his freshened strength prevails, +and he at last triumphs, and enters his haven in safety--though in this +contest he sometimes falls to rise no more, for it is terrible." + +The power of ocean currents in drifting vessels out of their course, and +in sweeping away great bodies of ice, is very great; although, from the +fact that there is no land to enable the eye to mark the flow, such +drifts are not perceptible. One of the most celebrated drifts of modern +times, and the most astonishing on account of its extent, was that of +the _Fox_ in Baffin's Bay in the year 1857, a somewhat detailed account +of which will be found in a succeeding chapter. + +The Gulf Stream is the cause of many of the most furious storms. The +fiercest gales sweep along with it, and it is supposed that the spring +and summer fogs of Newfoundland are caused by the immense volumes of +warm water poured by it into the cold seas of that region. We are told +that Sir Philip Brooke found the temperature of the sea on each side of +this stream to be at the freezing-point, while that of its waters was 80 +degrees. From this it may be easily seen how great are the disturbing +influences around and above it; for, as the warm and moist atmosphere +over it ascends in virtue of its lightness, the cold air outside rushes +in violently to supply its place, thus creating storms. + +The warm waters of this stream do not, it is believed, anywhere extend +to the bottom of the sea. It has been ascertained, by means of the +deep-sea thermometer, that they rest upon, or rather flow over, the cold +waters which are hastening from the north in search of those elements +which, in their wanderings, they have lost. As cold water is one of the +best non-conductors of heat, the Gulf Stream is thus prevented from +losing its caloric on its way across the Atlantic to ameliorate the +climates of the western coasts of Europe, and moderate the bitterness of +the northern seas. Were it otherwise, and this great stream flowed over +the crust of the Earth, so much of its heat would be extracted, that the +climates of France and our own islands would probably resemble that of +Canada. Our fields would be covered, for two, three, or four months, +with deep snow; our rivers would be frozen nearly to the bottom; our +land traffic would perhaps be carried on by means of sledges and +carioles; our houses would require to be fitted with double +window-frames and heated with iron stoves and our garments would have to +be made of the thickest woollens and the warmest furs. + +The presence and the unchanging regularity of these great hot and cold +currents in the ocean is indicated very clearly by the living +inhabitants of the deep. These, as certainly as the creatures of the +land, are under the influence of climate; so much so, that many of them +never quit their native region in the sea. All the beautiful and +delicate marine creatures and productions which dwell in the warm waters +of the south are utterly absent from those shores which are laved by the +cold currents that descend from the north; while, owing to the influence +of the Gulf Stream, we find many of those lovely and singular creatures +upon our comparatively northern shores. Of late years, as every one +knows, we have all over the land been gathering these marine gems, and +studying their peculiar habits with deep interest in that miniature +ocean the aquarium. In the same parallel on the other side of the +Atlantic none of these little lovers of heat are to be found. + +On the other hand, the whale, delighting as it does to lave its huge +warm-blooded body in iced water, is never found to enter the Gulf +Stream. Thus these fish, to some extent, define its position. Other +fish there are which seem to resemble man in their ability to change +their climate at will but, like him also, they are apt in so doing to +lose their health, or, at least, to get somewhat out of condition. Some +kinds of fish, when caught in the waters off Virginia and the Carolinas, +are excellent for the table; but the same species, when taken off the +warm coral banks of the Bahamas, are scarcely worth eating. In fact, we +see no reason for doubting that when these fish find their health giving +way in the warm regions of the south, they seek to reinvigorate +themselves by change of water; and, quitting for a time the beauteous +coral groves, spend a few of the sunnier months of each year in +gambolling in the cool regions of the north, or, what is much the same +thing, in those cool currents that flow from the north in clearly +defined channels. + +Besides its other useful and manifold purposes, the Gulf Stream would +seem to be one of the great purveyors of food to the whales. +Sea-nettles, or medusae, are well known to constitute the principal food +of that species of whale which is termed the right whale. Navigators +have frequently observed large quantities of these medusae floating +along with the Gulf Stream; and one sea captain in particular fell in +with an extraordinarily large quantity of them, of a very peculiar +species, off the coast of Florida. As we have said, no whales ever +enter the warm waters of the Gulf Stream; therefore, at that time at +least, the leviathan could not avail himself of this rich provision. +The captain referred to was bound for England. On his return voyage he +fell in with the same mass of medusae off the Western Islands, and was +three or four days in sailing through them. Now, the Western Islands is +a great place of resort for the whale, and thither had the Gulf Stream +been commissioned to convey immense quantities of its peculiar food. + +We might enlarge endlessly on this great ocean current, but enough, we +think, has been said to show that the sea, instead of being an ocean of +unchanging drops, driven about at random by the power of stormy winds, +is a mighty flood flowing in an appointed course--steady, regular, and +systematic in its motions, varied and wonderful in its actions, benign +and sweet in its influences, as it sweeps mound and round the world, +fulfilling the will of its great Creator. + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +THE ATMOSPHERIC OCEAN--ORDER IN ITS FLOW--OFFICES OF THE ATMOSPHERE-- +DANGERS LESSENED BY SCIENCE--CURRENTS OF ATMOSPHERE--CAUSE OF WIND--TWO +GREAT CURRENTS--DISTURBING INFLUENCES--CALMS--VARIABLE WINDS--CAUSES +THEREOF--LOCAL CAUSES OF DISTURBANCE--GULF STREAM--INFLUENCE--THE WINDS +MAPPED OUT--A SUPPOSED CASE. + +Fish are not the only creatures that live in this ocean. The human +inhabitants of Earth, dwell at the bottom of an ocean of air, which +encircles the globe. Fish, however, have the advantage of us, inasmuch +as they can float and dart about in their ocean, while we, like the +crabs, can only crawl about at the bottom of ours. + +This atmospheric ocean is so closely connected with the sea, and +exercises upon it so constant, universal, and important an influence, +that to omit, in a work of this kind, very special reference to the +winds, would be almost as egregious an oversight as to ignore the waves. + +Wind, or atmospheric air in motion, is the cause of storms, of waves, of +water-transport through the sky, and of an incalculable amount of varied +phenomena on land and sea. Without this great agent no visible motion +would ever take place in the sea. Its great currents, indeed, might +flow on (though even that is questionable), but its surface would never +present any other aspect than that of an unruffled sheet of clear glass. +The air, then, becomes in this place an appropriate subject of +consideration. The Voice of Ocean has something very emphatic to say +about the atmosphere. + +In regard to its nature, it is sufficient to say that atmospheric air is +composed of two gases--oxygen and nitrogen. Like the sea, the +atmosphere is an ocean which flows, not in chaotic confusion, but in +regular, appointed courses; acting in obedience to the fixed, unvarying +laws of the Almighty, and having currents, counter-currents, and eddies +also, just like the watery ocean, which exercise a specific and salutary +influence where they exist. + +The offices of the atmosphere are thus quaintly enumerated by Maury:-- + +"The atmosphere is an envelope or covering for the distribution of light +and heat over the Earth; it is a sewer into which, with every breath we +draw, we cast vast quantities of dead animal matter; it is a laboratory +for purification, in which that matter is recompounded, and wrought +again into wholesome and healthful shapes; it is a machine for pumping +up all the rivers from the sea, and for conveying the water from the +ocean to their sources in the mountains. It is an inexhaustible +magazine, marvellously stored; and upon the proper working of this +machine depends the well-being of every plant and animal that inhabits +the Earth." + +An element whose operations are so manifold and so important could not +fail to engage the study of philosophic men in all ages; but so +difficult has been that study that little progress was made until very +recently, when men, acting in unison in all parts of the world, have, by +collating their observations, become acquainted with some of those laws +which govern the atmosphere, and direct its courses and velocities. + +In early ages very little indeed was known about the wind beyond the +palpable facts of its existence, its varied condition, and its +tremendous power; and men's observations in regard to it did not extend +much beyond the noting of those peculiar and obvious aspects of the sky +which experience taught them to regard as evidences of approaching +storm. But, although such aspects of the heavens were, and always will +be, pretty safe and correct indicators of the Weather, they are by no +means infallible; and in some regions and under certain conditions they +are wanting altogether. + +When the sea captain observes a lowering aspect of the sky, with, it may +be, a dark line above the distant edge of the sea, he knows--however +calm and unruffled may be the ocean around him--that wind may be +expected; and, calling the crew, he orders sail to be taken in, and +preparation made for the approaching breeze. But there are times when +no such warning is given, when the atmospheric is perfectly still, the +sea calm as glass, and the vessel floats motionless with her sails +hanging idly from the yards, as if she were: + + A painted ship upon a painted Ocean. + +Suddenly, and before preparation can be made to withstand it, the +hurricane bursts in appalling fury over the sea: the sails are blown to +ribbons; the masts, perhaps, broken down; and frequently the vessel +itself overwhelmed and sent to the bottom. Many a gallant ship, which +has left the harbour ably commanded and well manned, and never more been +heard of, has doubtless gone down in sudden storms such as those we have +referred to. + +But the inventions of science have now very much lessened the danger of +these storms. The barometer, by the sudden fall of its column of +mercury, tells, as plainly and certainly as if it spoke with an audible +voice, that a storm is approaching, even though all nature should appear +to contradict the fact by its calm and serene aspect; so that the crew +thus warned have time to furl the sails, fasten down the hatches, and +otherwise prepare to face the impending danger. + +The atmosphere flows in a grand harmonious system of currents and +counter-currents, with their corresponding eddies, just like the ocean; +and the grand final results of its varied action are to equalise in some +degree the temperatures of the world, to carry off and distribute +moisture where it is required, to sweep away noxious vapours, and +generally to ventilate the Earth and gladden the heart of man. + +The primary cause of all wind is the combined action of heat and cold. +If the world were heated with perfect equality all round, there would +be, as far at least as heat is concerned, a perfect and permanent +stagnation of the atmosphere; and this would speedily result in the +destruction of every living thing. But by the varied and beautiful +arrangements which the Almighty has made in nature He has secured a +regular flow of atmospheric currents, which will continue unalterably to +move as long as the present economy of things exists. The intense and +constant action of the sun's rays in the torrid zone produces great +heat, while the less powerful and frequently interrupted influence of +his rays in the frigid zones induces extreme cold. Hence we have in one +region heated air, in another cool air. Now, the effect of heat upon +air is to expand it, make it light, and cause it to rise. The moment it +does so, the cold air rushes in to supply its place; and this rushing in +of the cold air is what we call wind. + +It may surprise many people to be told that there are only two great and +never-ceasing courses of the winds of this world--namely, north and +south. They flow perpetually from the equator to the poles, and from +the poles to the equator. All the irregularities and interruptions that +we observe are mere temporary and partial deflections from this grand +course. The heated air at the equator rises continually and flows in an +upper current towards the pole, getting gradually cooled on its way +north. That from the pole flows in an under current towards the +equator, getting gradually heated on its way south. We speak only of +the Northern Hemisphere, for the sake of simplifying explanation,--the +action of the great wind-current in the Southern Hemisphere is precisely +similar. + +But our broad simple statement about the upper current from the equator, +and the under current from the pole, requires a slight modification, +which we thought it best not to mingle with the statement itself. The +heated air from the equator does indeed _commence_ to flow in an upper +current, and the cooled air from the pole in an under current; but, as +the upper currents of air are speedily cooled by exposure to space, and +the under currents are heated by contact with the earth's surface, they +constantly change places--the lower current becoming the upper, and +_vice versa_. But they do not change _direction_. The Equatorial +Current ascends, rushes north to a point about latitude 30 degrees, +where, being sufficiently cooled, it swoops down, and continues its +Northward rush along the earth. At another point the Polar Current +quits the earth, and soaring up, in consequence of its recently acquired +heat, becomes the upper current. This change in the two currents takes +place twice in their course. + +Of course, the effect of these changes is to produce north winds in one +latitude and south winds in another, according to the particular wind +(equatorial or polar) that happens to be in contact with the earth. At +the points where these two currents cross, in changing places, we +necessarily have calms, or conflicting and variable winds. + +Here, then, we have the first of the constant disturbing causes, and of +apparent irregularities, in the winds. The Earth, as every one knows, +whirls rapidly on its axis from west to east. At the equator the whirl +is so rapid that the atmosphere does not at once follow the Earth's +motion. It lags behind, and thus induces an easterly tendency to the +winds, so that a north wind becomes a north-east, and a south wind a +south-east. Here we have another constant cause of variation from the +northerly and southerly flow. We thus account for an easterly tendency +to the winds, but whence their westerly flow? It is simply explained +thus: + +The motion of the Earth is greatest at the equator. It diminishes +gradually towards the poles, where there is no motion at all. The +atmosphere partakes of the Earth's motion when in contact with it; and +when thrown upwards by heat, as at the equator, it keeps up the motion +for some time, as it meets with no resistance there. Bearing this in +mind, let us now follow a gush of warm atmosphere from the equator. It +rushes up, and, turning north and south, seeks the poles. We follow the +northern division. When it left the Earth it had acquired a very strong +motion _towards_ the east,--not so great as that of the Earth itself, +but great enough to be equivalent to a furious gale from west to east. +If we suppose this air to redescend whence it rose, it would, on +reaching the equator, find the Earth going too fast for it. It would +lag a little, and become a gentle easterly breeze. But now, throw aside +this supposition;--our breeze rushes north; at latitude 30 degrees it +has got cooled, and swoops down upon the Earth; but the Earth at this +latitude is moving much slower than at the equator; the wind, however, +has lost little or none of its easterly velocity. On reaching the Earth +it rushes east much faster than the Earth itself, and thus becomes a +westerly gale. + +There are, however, many other agents at work, which modify and disturb +what we may call the legitimate flow of the wind; and these agents are +diverse in different places, so that the atmosphere is turned out of a +straight course, and is caused to deflect, to halt, and to turn round: +sometimes sweeping low as if in haste; at other times pausing, as if in +uncertainty; and often whirling round, as if in mad confusion. To the +observer, who sees only the partial effects around his own person, all +this commotion seems but the disorderly action of blind chance; but to +the eye of Him who sees the end from the beginning, we may certainly +conclude that naught is seen but order and perfect harmony. And to the +eye of Science there now begins to appear, in what was formerly an +atmospheric chaos, an evidence of design and system, which is not, +indeed, absolutely clear, but which is nevertheless abundantly +perceptible to minds that cannot hope in this life to see otherwise than +"through a glass, darkly." + +The causes which modify the action of the winds are, as we have said, +various. Local causes produce local currents. A clear sky in one +region allows the sun's rays to pour upon, let us say, the ocean, +producing great heat; the result of which is evaporation. Aqueous +vapour is very light, therefore it rises; and in doing so the aqueous +particles carry the air up with them, and the wind necessarily rushes in +below to supply its place. The falling of heavy rain, in certain +conditions of the atmosphere, has the effect of raising wind. +Electricity has also, in all probability, something to do with the +creation of motion in the atmosphere. Now, as these are all local +causes, they produce local--or what, in regard to the whole atmosphere, +may be termed irregular--effects. And as these causes or agents are in +ceaseless operation at all times, so their disturbing influence is +endless; and hence the apparent irregularity in the winds. + +But these causes are themselves, not less than their results, dependent +on other causes or laws, the workings of which are steady and unvarying; +and the little irregularities that appear to us in the form of +fluctuating and changing winds and calms may be compared to the varying +ripples and shifting eddies of a river, whose surface is affected by the +comparatively trifling influences of wind, rain, and drought, but whose +grand onward course is never for a single moment interrupted. + +Among these disturbing influences, the Gulf Stream is a very important +one. It is constantly sending up large volumes of steam, which, rising +into the air, induce a flow of wind from both sides towards its centre. +And many of the storms that arise in other parts of the Atlantic make +for this stream, and follow its course. + +So much has been ascertained by scientific investigation of the winds, +that we can now distinctly map out the great belts or currents which +pass right round the world. We can tell in which parallels winds with +easting, and in which those with westing, in them, will be most +frequently found; and by directing our course to such places, we can to +a certain extent count upon profiting by the winds that will be most +suitable. Before the facts of atmospheric circulation were known, +mariners sailed by chance. If they happened to get into the belt of +wind that suited them, their voyages were favourable; if they got into +the wrong region, their voyages were unfavourable,--that was all. But +they had no idea that there was any possibility of turning the tables, +and, by a careful investigation of the works of the Creator, coming at +last to such knowledge as would enable them to reduce winds and waves, +in a great degree, to a state of slavery, instead of themselves being at +their mercy. + +The world may be said to be encircled by a succession of belts of wind, +which blow not always in the same direction, but almost invariably with +the same routine of variations. A vessel sailing from north to south +encounters these belts in succession. To mariners of old, these varying +winds seemed to blow in utter confusion. To men of the present time, +their varied action is counted on with some degree of certainty. The +reason why men were so long in discovering the nature of atmospheric +circulation was, that they were not sufficiently alive to the immense +value of united effort. They learned wisdom chiefly from personal +experience--each man for himself; and in the great majority of cases, +stores of knowledge, that would have been of the utmost importance to +mankind, were buried with the individuals who had laid them up. +Moreover, the life of an individual was too short, and his experience +too limited, to enable him to discover any of the grand laws of Nature; +and as there was no gathering together of information from all quarters, +and all sorts of men, and all seasons (as there is now), the knowledge +acquired by individuals was almost always lost to the world. Thus men +were ever learning, but never arriving at a knowledge of the truth. + +May we not here remark, that this evil was owing to another evil-- +namely, man's ignorance of, or indifference to, the duty of what we may +term human communication? As surely as gravitation is an appointed law +of God, so surely is it an appointed duty that men shall communicate +their individual knowledge to each other, in order that the general +knowledge of the species may advance and just in proportion to the +fidelity with which men obey this duty--the care and ability with which +they collate and systematise and investigate their knowledge--will be +the result of their efforts. + +In order to make the above remarks more clear as regards atmospheric +phenomena, let us suppose the case of a sailor who makes the same voyage +every year, but not precisely at the same time each year (and it must be +remembered that the rigid punctuality at starting which now holds good +did not exist in former times). In his first voyage he had to cross, +say, four of the wind-belts. While crossing belt number one, he +experiences south-west winds chiefly, and, being an observant man, notes +the fact. In belt number two he encounters westerly winds. In number +three he is in a region of variable winds and calms. In this region the +winds blow all round the compass, averaging about three months from each +quarter. But our sailor does not know that; he does not stay there all +the year to make notes; he passes on, having recorded his experience. +In crossing belt number four, he finds the prevailing winds to be +easterly. + +Next year he sets forth again but merchants are not always punctual. +The lading cannot be completed in time, or adverse winds render the +setting sail unadvisable. At length, after a month or six weeks' delay, +he proceeds on his voyage, and finds belt number one perhaps much the +same as last year. He congratulates himself on his good fortune, and +notes his observations; but in belt number two, the wind is somewhat +modified, owing to its being later in the season,--it is rather against +him. In number three it is right in his teeth, whereas last year it was +quite in his favour. In number four, which we will suppose is the +trade-wind belt (of which more hereafter), he finds the wind still +easterly. Here, then, is the groundwork of confusion in our sailor's +mind. He has not the remotest idea that in belt number one the wind +blows chiefly, but not always, in one particular direction; that in +number four it blows invariably in one way; and that in number three it +is regularly irregular. In fact, he does not know that such belts exist +at all, and his opportunities of observing are not sufficiently frequent +or prolonged to enable him to ascertain anything with certainty. + +Now, when we remember that in this imperfect experience of his he is +still further misled by his frequently encountering _local_ +vicissitudes--such as storms and calms resulting from local and +temporary causes--we see how confusion becomes worse confounded. No +doubt he does gather some few crumbs of knowledge; but he is called on, +perhaps, to change his scene of action. Another ship is given to him, +another route entered on, and he ceases altogether to prosecute his +inquiries in the old region. Or old age comes on; and even although he +may have been beginning to have a few faint glimmerings as to laws and +systems in his mind, he has not the power to make much of these. He +dies; his knowledge is, to a very large extent, lost, and his log-books +disappear, as all such books do, nobody knows or cares where. + +Now this state of things has been changing during the last few years. +Log-books are collected in thousands. The experiences of many men, in +reference to the same spots in the same years, months, and even hours, +are gathered, collated, and compared; and the result is, that although +there are conflicting elements and contradictory appearances, order has +been discovered in the midst of apparent confusion, and scientific men +have been enabled to pierce through the chaos of littlenesses by which +the world's vision has been hitherto obscured, and to lay bare many of +those grand progressions of nature which move unvaryingly with stately +step through space and time, as the river, with all its minor eddies and +counter-currents, flows with unvarying regularity to the ocean. + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +TRADE-WINDS--STORMS--THEIR EFFECTS--MONSOONS--THEIR VALUE--LAND AND SEA +BREEZES--EXPERIMENTS--HURRICANES--THOSE OF 1801--ROTATORY STORMS--THEIR +TERRIBLE EFFECTS--CHINA SEAS--HURRICANE IN 1837--WHIRLWINDS--WEIGHT OF +ATMOSPHERE--VALUE OF ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION--HEIGHT OF ATMOSPHERE. + +Before proceeding to speak of the power and the dreadful effects of +wind, it is necessary to say a word or two about the trade-winds. + +It is supposed that the "trades" derived their name from the fact of +their being favourable to navigation, and, therefore, to trade. They +consist of two belts of wind, one on each side of the equator, which +blow always in the same direction. + +In the last chapter it was explained that the heated atmosphere at the +equator rises, and that the cooler atmosphere from the poles rushes in +to supply its place. That which rushes from the south pole is, of +course, a south wind, that from the north pole a north wind; but, owing +to the Earth's motion on its axis from west to east, the one becomes a +north-east, the other a south-east wind. These are the north-east and +the South-east "trades." They blow regularly--sometimes gently, +sometimes fiercely--all the year round. Between the two is a belt of +calms and changeable breezes, varying from 150 to 500 miles broad-- +according to the time of the year--where there are frequent and violent +squalls, of very short duration, accompanied with heavy rains. This +region is called by seamen the "doldrums," and considerable trouble and +difficulty do ships experience in crossing it. + +It has already been explained that about latitude 30 degrees, the upper +current of wind from the south descends. At the same point the upper +current from the north also descends. They cut through each other, and +the point where these two cut each other is the northern limit of the +north-east trade-winds. The same explanation holds in regard to the +southern limit of the south-east trades. + +In the accompanying diagram the arrows within the circle point out the +direction of the north-east and the south-east "trades" between the +tropics of cancer and capricorn, and also the counter currents to the +north and south of these, while the arrows around the circle show how +counter currents meet and rise, or descend, and produce the calm belts. + +We have hitherto enlarged chiefly on the grand currents of the +atmosphere, and on those modifying causes and effects which are +perpetual. Let us now turn to the consideration of those winds which +are produced by local causes, and the effects of which are partial. + +And here we are induced to revert to the Gulf Stream, which has been +already referred to as a _local_ disturber of the regular flow of the +atmosphere. This immense body of heated water, passing through cold +regions of the sea, has the effect of causing the most violent storms. +The hurricanes of the West Indies are among the most violent in the +world. We have read of one so violent that it "forced the Gulf Stream +back to its sources, and piled up the water in the Gulf to the height of +thirty feet. A vessel named the _Ledbnry Snow_ attempted to ride it +out. When it abated, she found herself high up on the dry land, having +let go her anchor among the tree-tops of Elliott's quay! The Florida +quays were inundated many feet; and it is said the scene presented in +the Gulf Stream was never surpassed in awful sublimity on the ocean. +The water thus dammed up rushed out with frightful velocity against the +fury of the gale, producing a sea that beggared description." + +The monsoons of the Indian Ocean are among the most striking and regular +of the locally-caused winds. Before touching on their causes, let us +glance at their effects. They blow for nearly six months in one +direction, and for the other six in the opposite direction. At the +period of their changing, terrific gales are frequent--gales such as we, +in our temperate regions, never dream of. + +What is termed the rainy season in India is the result of the south-west +monsoon, which for four months in the year deluges the regions within +its influence with rain. + +The commencement of the south-west monsoon is described as being sublime +and awful beyond description. Before it comes, the whole country is +pining under the influence of long-continued drought and heat; the +ground is parched and rent; scarcely a blade of verdure is to be seen +except in the beds of rivers, where the last pools of water seem about +to evaporate, and leave the land under the dominion of perpetual +sterility. Man and beast pant for fresh air and cool water; but no cool +breeze comes. A blast, as if from the mouth of a furnace, greets the +burning cheek; no blessed drops descend; the sky is clear as a mirror, +without a single cloud to mitigate the intensity of the sun's withering +rays. At last, on some happy morning, small clouds are seen on the +horizon. They may be no bigger than a man's hand, but they are blessed +harbingers of rain. To those who know not what is coming, there seems +at first no improvement on the previous sultry calms. There is a sense +of suffocating heat in the atmosphere; a thin haze creeps over the sky, +but it scarcely affects the broad glare of the sun. + +At length the sky begins to change. The horizon becomes black. Great +masses of dark clouds rise out of the sea. Fitful gusts of wind begin +to blow, and as suddenly to cease; and these signs of coming tempest +keep dallying with each other, as if to tantalise the expectant +creation. The lower part of the sky becomes deep red, the gathering +clouds spread over the heavens, and a deep gloom is cast upon the earth +and sea. + +And now the storm breaks forth. The violent gusts swell into a +continuous, furious gale. Rain falls, not in drops, but in broad +sheets. The black sea is crested with white foam, which is quickly +swept up and mingled with the waters above; while those below heave up +their billows, and rage and roar in unison with the tempest. On the +land everything seems about to be uprooted and hurled to destruction. +The tall straight cocoa-nut trees are bent over till they almost lie +along the ground; the sand and dry earth are whirled up in eddying +clouds, and everything movable is torn up and swept away. + +To add to the dire uproar, thunder now peals from the skies in loud, +continuous roars, and in sharp angry crashes, while lightning plays +about in broad sheets all over the sky, the one following so close on +the other as to give the impression of perpetual flashes and an +unintermitting roar; the whole scene presenting an aspect so awful, that +sinful man might well suppose the season of the Earth's probation had +passed away, and that the Almighty were about to hurl complete +destruction upon his offending creatures. + +But far other intentions are in the breast of Him who rides upon the +storm. His object is to restore, not to destroy--to gladden, not to +terrify. This tempestuous weather lasts for some days, but at the end +of that time the change that comes over the face of nature seems little +short of miraculous. In the words of Mr Elphinstone, who describes +from personal observation--"The whole earth is covered with a sudden but +luxuriant verdure, the rivers are full and tranquil, the air is pure and +delicious, and the sky is varied and embellished with clouds. + +"The effect of this change is visible on all the animal creation, and +can only be imagined in Europe by supposing the depth of a dreary winter +to start at once into all the freshness and brilliancy of spring. From +that time the rain falls at intervals for about a month, when it comes +on again with great violence; and in July the rains are at their height. +During the third month they rather diminish, but are still heavy. In +September they gradually abate, and are often suspended till near the +end of the month, when they depart amid thunders and tempests, as they +came." + +Such are the effects of the monsoons upon land and sea. Of course the +terrific gales that usher them in and out could not be expected to pass +without doing a good deal of damage, especially to shipping. But this +is more than compensated by the facilities which they afford to +navigation. + +In many parts of the world, especially in the Indian Ocean, merchants +calculate with certainty on these periodical winds. They despatch their +ships with, say, the north-east monsoon, transact business in distant +lands, and receive them back, laden with foreign produce, by the +south-west monsoon. If there were no monsoons, the voyage from Canton +to England could not be accomplished in nearly so short a time as it is +at present. + +And now as to the cause of monsoons. They are, for the most part, +_deflected trade-winds_. And they owe their deflection to the presence +of large continents. If there were no land near the equator, the +trade-winds would always blow in the same manner right round the world; +but the great continents, with their intensely-heated surfaces, cause +local disturbance of the trade-winds. When a trade-wind is turned out +of its course, it is regarded as a monsoon. For instance, the summer +sun, beating on the interior plains of Asia, creates such intense heat +in the atmosphere that it is more than sufficient to neutralise the +forces which cause the trade-winds to blow. They are, accordingly, +arrested and turned back. The great general law of the trades is in +this region temporarily suspended, and the monsoons are created. + +It is thus that the heated plains of Africa and Central America produce +the monsoons of the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Gulf of Mexico. + +We think it unnecessary to explain minutely the causes that produce +variation in the monsoons. Every intelligent reader will readily +conceive how the change of seasons and varied configuration as well as +unequal arrangement of land and water, will reverse, alter, and modify +the direction and strength of the monsoons. + +Land and sea breezes are the next species of wind to which we would +direct attention. They occur in tropical countries, and owe their +existence to the fact that the land is much more easily affected by +sudden changes of temperature than the sea. Thus, the land in warm +regions is much heated by the sun's rays during the day; the atmosphere +over it becomes also heated, in virtue of which it rises: the cool +atmosphere over the sea rushes in to supply its place, and forms the +_sea breeze_: which occurs only during the day. + +At night the converse of this takes place. Land heats and cools +rapidly; water heats and cools slowly. After the sun sets, the cooling +of the land goes on faster than that of the sea. In a short time the +atmosphere over the land becomes cooler than that over the sea; it +descends and flows off out to sea; thus forming the _land breeze_. It +occurs only at night, and when the change from one to the other is +taking place there is always a short period of calm. Land and sea +breezes are of the greatest use in refreshing those regions which, +without them, would be almost, if not altogether, uninhabitable. + +In "The Tempest," an interesting work on the origin and phenomena of +wind, published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, a +curious and simple experiment is described, whereby the existence of +upper and under currents of air and the action of land and sea breezes +may be clearly seen and understood. We quote the passage:-- + +"The existence of the upper and under currents of air which mark the +phenomena of the trade-winds, and of land and sea breezes, may be +beautifully illustrated in two adjoining rooms, in one of which a good +fire is burning, while in the other there is none. If the door between +the two rooms be thrown open, the cold air will enter the heated room in +a strong current, or, in other words, as a violent wind. At the same +time the heated air of the warm room ascends and passes the contrary way +into the cold room, at the upper part of the same doorway; while in the +middle of this opening, exactly between the two currents, the air +appears to have little or no motion. The best way to show this +experiment is to introduce the flame of a candle into the doorway +between a hot and a cold room. If the flame be held near the bottom of +the doorway, where the air is most dense, it will be strongly drawn +towards the heated room; and if held near the top of the door it will be +drawn towards the cold room with somewhat less force; while midway +between the top and bottom the flame will be scarcely disturbed. + +"There is also another pretty experiment which illustrates well the +theory of land and sea breezes. Take a large dish, fill it with cold +water, and in the middle of this put a water-plate or a saucer filled +with warm water. The first will represent the ocean, and the latter an +island made hot by the rays of the sun, and rarefying the air above it. +Take a lighted wax candle and blow it out; and, if the air of the room +be still, on applying it successively to every side of the saucer, the +smoke will be seen moving towards the saucer and rising over it, thus +indicating the course of the air from sea to land. On reversing the +experiment, by filling the saucer with cold water (to represent the +island at night) and the dish with warm water, the land breeze will be +shown by holding the smoking wick over the edge of the saucer; the smoke +will then be wafted to the warmer air over the dish." + +We have just tried the first of these experiments, with complete +success. We would, however, recommend a piece of twisted brown paper, +lighted and blown out, instead of a wax candle, because it gives out +more smoke and is probably more obtainable on short notice. The +experiment of the doorway, moreover, does not require that there should +lie two rooms with a door between. We have found that the door of our +study, which opens into a cold passage, serves the purpose admirably. + +Were we treating chiefly of the atmosphere in this work, it would be +necessary that we should enlarge on all the varieties of winds, with +their causes, effects, and numerous modifications. But our main subject +is the Ocean. The atmosphere, although it could not with justice have +been altogether passed over, must hold a secondary place here; therefore +we will conclude our remarks on it with a brief reference to hurricanes. + +It has been ascertained that most of the great storms that sweep with +devastating fury over the land and sea are not, as was supposed, +rectilinear in their motion, but circular. They are, in fact, enormous +whirlwinds, sometimes upwards of one hundred and fifty miles in +diameter; and they not only whirl round their own centres, but advance +steadily forward through space. + +In the year 1831, a memorable and dreadful series of storms passed over +some of the India Islands, and caused terrible havoc, especially in the +island of Barbadoes. The peculiarity of these hurricanes was that they +ravaged the different islands at different dates, and were therefore +supposed to be different storms. Such, however, was not the case. It +was one mighty cyclone, or circular storm,--a gigantic whirlwind,--which +traversed that region at the rate of about sixteen miles an hour. It +was not its progressive, but its rotatory motion, that constituted its +terrible power. On the 10th of August it reached Barbadoes; on the +11th, the islands of Saint Vincent and Saint Lucia; on the 12th it +touched the southern coast of Porto Rico; on the 13th it swept over part +of Cuba; on the 14th it encountered Havanna; on the 17th it reached the +northern shores of the Gulf of Mexico and travelled on to New Orleans, +where it raged till the 18th. It thus, in six days, passed, as a +whirlwind of destruction, over two thousand three hundred miles of land +and sea. It was finally dissipated amid heavy rains. + +The effect of a hurricane is well described by Washington Irving. +"About mid-day," he says, "a furious gale sprang up from the east, +driving before it dense volumes of cloud and vapour. Encountering +another tempest from the west, it appeared as if a violent conflict +ensued. The clouds were rent by incessant flashes, or rather streams, +of lightning. At one time they were piled up high in the sky, at +another they descended to the earth, filling the air with a baleful +darkness, more impenetrable than the obscurity of midnight. Wherever +the hurricane passed, whole tracts of forest were shivered and stripped +of their leaves and branches; and trees of gigantic size, which resisted +the blast, were torn up by the roots and hurled to a great distance. +Groves were torn from the mountain-precipices, and vast masses of earth +and rock precipitated into the valleys with terrific noise, choking the +course of the rivers. + +"The fearful sounds in the air and on the earth, the pealing thunder, +the vivid lightning, the howling of the wind, the crash of falling trees +and rocks, filled every one with affright, and many thought that the end +of the world was at hand. Some fled to caverns for safety, for their +frail houses were blown down, and the air was filled with the trunks and +branches of trees, and even with fragments of rocks, carried along by +the fury of the tempest. When the hurricane reached the harbour, it +whirled the ships round as they lay at anchor, snapped their cables, and +sunk three of them to the bottom with all who were on board. Others +were driven about, dashed against each other, and tossed mere wrecks +upon the shore by the swelling surges of the sea, which in some places +rolled for three or four miles upon the land. This tempest lasted for +three hours." + +The China seas are the most frequently visited by severe tempests, or +typhoons; yet of all vessels, the Chinese junks, as they are called, +seem to be least adapted by their build for encountering such storms. + +A terrible hurricane burst upon the China seas in the month of January +1837, as we learn from the "United Service Journal" of that year. An +English vessel was exposed to it. The sea, rising in mountains around +and over the ship's sides, hurled her rapidly on her passage homeward, +when suddenly a wreck was discovered to the westward. The order to +shorten sail was given, and promptly obeyed; and when they neared the +wreck they found her to be a Chinese junk without mast or rudder--a +helpless log on the breast of that boiling sea. + +There were many Chinamen on deck vehemently imploring assistance. The +exhibition of their joy on beholding the approach of the stranger was of +the wildest and most extravagant nature; but it was doomed to be +suddenly turned to despair, as the violence of the storm drove the ship +past the wreck. It became necessary to put her on the other tack, a +manoeuvre which the poor creatures construed into abandonment, and the +air rang with the most agonising shrieks of misery. But hope was again +raised, when a boat was lowered and a rope thrown on board for the +purpose of towing the junk to the ship. This intention was frustrated +by the windlass breaking. At sight of this one man, in a paroxysm of +despair, jumped overboard after the rope; but he missed it. Being a +good swimmer, he tried to reach the boat; but his feeble power could +avail him nothing in the midst of such raging elements: he speedily sank +to rise no more. + +Another rope, however, was secured to the junk, and by means of it the +rest of the crew (eighteen in number) were saved. Their gratitude was +boundless. They almost worshipped the officers, the crew, and the +vessel, prostrating themselves and kissing the feet of the former, and +the very planks of the latter. + +Well-built ships, however, are not always able to withstand the violence +of rotatory storms. Instances occur in which the tightest built and +best manned ships are destroyed as suddenly as the clumsiest of +ill-managed junks. Not many years ago, a vessel was proceeding +prosperously on her voyage, when signs of a coming tempest induced the +wary captain to reduce, and, finally, to take in all sail. But his +precautions were in vain. The storm burst on the devoted ship, and in a +few minutes the masts went over the side, and the hull lay a total wreck +upon the sea. + +These hurricanes or cyclones, although in reality whirlwinds, are so +large that man's eye cannot measure them, and it is only by scientific +investigation that we have arrived at the knowledge of the fact. The +whirlwind, properly so called, is a much smaller body of atmosphere. +Sometimes we see miniature whirlwinds, even in our own temperate land, +passing along a road in autumn, lifting the leaves and dust into the air +and carrying them along in the form of a rotatory pillar. In other +regions they exert a power quite equal to the tempest, though in a more +limited space, overturning houses, uprooting trees, cutting a track +twenty or thirty yards wide through the dense forest as thoroughly as if +a thousand woodmen had been at work there for many years. + +When whirlwinds pass from the land to the sea they create waterspouts; +of which we shall have something to say in another chapter. Meanwhile, +we think it may be interesting to give the following miscellaneous +information regarding the atmosphere, gathered from the work of Dr +Buist, who devoted much earnest study to the subject of atmospheric +phenomena. + +"The weight of the atmosphere is equal to that of a solid globe of lead +sixty miles in diameter. Its principal elements are oxygen and nitrogen +gases, with a vast quantity of water suspended in them in the shape of +vapour; and, commingled with these, a quantity of carbon in the shape of +fixed air, sufficient to restore from its mass many-fold the coal that +now exists in the world. Water is not compressible or elastic; it may +be solidified into ice or vaporised into steam: but the air is elastic +and compressible. It may be condensed to any extent by pressure, or +expanded to an infinite degree of tenuity by pressure being removed from +it. It is not liable to undergo any changes in constitution beyond +these, by any of the ordinary influences by which it is affected." + +If the heating and cooling process--which we have described as being +carried on between the equator and the poles--were to cease, we should +have a furious hurricane rushing perpetually round the globe at the rate +of one thousand miles an hour,--ten times the speed of the most violent +tornado that has ever carried devastation over the surface of the earth. + +The air, heated and dried as it sweeps over the arid surface of the +soil, drinks up by day myriads of tons of moisture from the sea,--so +much, indeed, that, were none restored to it, the surface of the ocean +would be depressed eight or ten feet annually. + +We do not certainly know the height of the atmosphere. It is said that +its upper surface cannot lie nearer to us than fifty, and can scarcely +be further off than five hundred, miles. "It surrounds us on all sides, +yet we cannot see it; it presses on us with a weight of fifteen pounds +on every square inch of the surface of our bodies--in other words, we +are at all times sustaining a load of between seventy and one hundred +tons of it on our persons--yet we do not feel it! Softer than the +finest down, more impalpable than the lightest gossamer, it leaves the +cobweb undisturbed, and, at times, scarcely stirs the most delicate +flower that feeds on the dew it supplies; yet it bears the fleets of +nations on its wings round the world, and crushes the most refractory +substances with its weight. It bends the rays of the sun from their +path to give us the aurora of the morning and the twilight of evening. +It disperses and refracts their various tints to beautify the approach +and the retreat of the orb of day. But for the atmosphere, sunshine +would burst on us in a moment and fail us in the twinkling of an eye, +removing us in an instant from midnight darkness to the blaze of noon." + +We have written a good deal on this subject, yet the thousandth part has +not been told of even the grand and more obvious operations of the +atmosphere, much less the actions and results of its minor and invisible +processes. Were we to descend with philosophers into the minuter +laboratories of the world, and consider the permeating, ramifying, +subtle part the atmosphere plays in the innumerable transformations that +are perpetually going on around and within us, we should be constrained +to feel more deeply than we have ever yet felt, that the works of the +Creator are indeed wonderful beyond all expression or conception. + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +WATERSPOUTS--CAUSES OF--APPEARANCE--ELECTRICITY--EXPERIMENTS--ARTIFICIAL +WATERSPOUTS--SHOWERS OF FISH--MR. ELLIS ON WATERSPOUTS IN THE SOUTH +SEAS. + +We turn back now from the atmospheric to the aqueous ocean. Yet so +intimate is the connection between the two, that we shall find it +impossible to avoid occasional reference to the former. + +Our present subject, _waterspouts_, obliges us to recur for a little to +the atmosphere, which we dismissed, or attempted to dismiss, in the last +chapter. + +There is no doubt that waterspouts are to a great extent, if not +altogether, due to the presence of electricity in the air. When the +clouds have been raging for some time in the skies of tropical regions, +rendering the darkness bright, and the air tremulous with their dread +artillery, they seem to grow unusually thirsty; the ordinary means of +water-supply through the atmosphere do not appear to be sufficient for +the demand, or war-tax in the shape of water-spouts, that is levied on +nature. The clouds therefore descend to the sea, and, putting down +their dark tongues, lick up the water thirstily in the form of +waterspouts. + +These whirling pillars of water frequently appear in groups of several +at a time. They are of various heights, sometimes ranging up to seven +hundred yards, with a thickness of fifty yards, and are very dangerous +to ships that happen to come within their influence. + +That they are caused by electricity has been proved by experiment-- +miniature waterspouts have been produced by artificial means; and as Dr +Bonzano of New York gives particular directions how the thing ought to +be done, we quote his words for the benefit of those who happen to +possess electrical machines. + +"From the conductor of an electrical machine suspend, by a wire or +chain, a small metallic ball (one of wood covered with tinfoil); and +under the ball place a rather wide metallic basin, containing some oil +of turpentine, at the distance of about three-quarters of an inch. If +the handle of the machine be now turned slowly, the liquid in the basin +will begin to move in different directions and form whirlpools. As the +electricity on the conductor accumulates, the troubled liquid will +elevate itself in the centre, and at last become attached to the ball. +Draw off the electricity from the conductor, to let the liquid resume +its position; a portion of the turpentine remains attached to the ball. +Turn the handle again very slowly, and observe now the few drops +adhering to the ball assume a conical shape, with the apex downward; +while the liquid under it assumes also a conical shape, the apex upward, +until both meet. As the liquid does not accumulate on the ball, there +must necessarily be as great a current downward as upward, giving the +column of liquid a rapid circular motion, which continues until the +electricity from the conductor is nearly all discharged silently, or +until it is discharged by a spark descending into the liquid. The same +phenomena take place with oil or water. Using the latter liquid, the +ball must be brought much nearer, or a much greater quantity of +electricity is necessary to raise it. + +"If, in this experiment, we let the ball swing to and fro, the little +waterspout will travel over its immature sea, carrying its whirlpools +along with it. When it breaks up, a portion of the liquid--and with it +anything it may contain--remains attached to the ball. The fish, seeds, +leaves, etcetera, that have fallen to the earth in rain-squalls, may +have owed their elevation to the clouds to the same cause that attaches +a few drops of the liquid, with its particles of impurities, to the +ball." + +There can be no doubt whatever that fish are carried up in waterspouts, +because the descent of those creatures from the skies in rain is a +well-established fact; and if they did not get there in waterspouts-- +which, when we consider it, seems most natural--then we are driven to +the conclusion that their native region is the sky, which is by no means +so natural or so probable. Many travellers have recorded the fact that +small fish have descended in rain. In a letter written not long ago by +a gentleman in Singapore we have the following account of a shower of +fish:-- + +"We experienced a shock of earthquake here on the 16th February last. +Its duration was about two minutes. Although it caused no damage, its +undulatory motion was sufficiently strong to affect certain persons with +a sensation akin to sea-sickness. It was followed by rain in torrents, +on the 20th, 21st, and 22nd. On the latter day especially, we were, for +half an hour, surrounded with water to a considerable depth. We could +not see three yards before us. When the sun came out again, I saw a +number of Malays and Chinese filling their baskets with fish contained +in the pools formed by the rain. + +"They told me the fish had `fallen from heaven,' and three days later, +when the pools were all dried up, there were still many dead fish lying +about. As they lay in my court-yard, which is surrounded by a wall, +they could not have been brought in by the overflowing of a torrent; +indeed, there is none of any considerable size in the neighbourhood. + +"The space covered by these fish might be about fifty acres, comprising +the eastern part of the town. They were very lively, and seemed to be +in good health." + +The writer of the above suggests, with some degree of hesitation, that +these fish were sucked up by waterspouts. We think that there need be +no hesitation in the matter! + +The appearance usually presented by a waterspout is that of a column of +aqueous vapour reaching from the sea to the clouds, sometimes straight, +more frequently a little bent, and thicker above and below than in the +centre of the column. + +Mr Ellis, the missionary, in his "Polynesian Researches," mentions +having, with a companion, met and narrowly escaped being overwhelmed by +several waterspouts, when passing on one occasion in an open boat +between two islands about thirty miles apart. On the passage they were +overtaken by a sudden and violent squall, which lasted several hours; +and, in order to avoid being sunk, they tied their masts, oars, and +sails in a bundle, and attaching a rope to them, and to the boat, cast +them into the sea. Thus they lay, as it were, at anchor in the lee of +this extemporised breakwater. It was but a feeble barrier, however, +against so wild a storm, and the native boatmen were so overcome by +fear, that they sat down in the bottom of the boat, and covered their +eyes with their hands. + +After a time the rain diminished, the sky began to clear, and the boat's +crew to revive, when suddenly one of the men uttered a cry of +consternation, and pointed to an object towards which all eyes were +instantly turned. They beheld a large cylindrical waterspout, +extending, like a massive column, from the ocean to the dark and +impending clouds. It was not far distant, and seemed to move slowly +towards the boat. + +Had Mr Ellis had any doubt as to the danger of a waterspout, the +extreme terror exhibited by the natives on this occasion must have +removed it; for it was not probable that, just after escaping from the +most imminent peril, they would fail back into a much more violent state +of terror, unless former experience had given them too good reason to +dread the presence of the object they now saw before them. + +The roughness of the sea forbade their attempting to hoist a sail in +order to avoid the waterspout. They were compelled, therefore, to +summon all the resolution they possessed, to enable them calmly to await +its approach, and put their trust in the arm of Jehovah. + +The helm was in the hands of a seaman whose steadiness could be depended +on. The natives were down in the bottom of the boat; they had given way +to despair. + +Two other waterspouts now came into view, and subsequently a third, if +not more, so that they felt as if completely surrounded by them. Some +were well defined, extending in an unbroken line from the sea to the +sky, like pillars resting on the ocean as their basis, and supporting +the clouds; others, assuming the shape of a funnel or inverted cone +attached to the clouds, extended their sharp points to the ocean below. +From the distinctness with which they were seen, it was judged that the +furthest could not have been many miles distant. In some they imagined +they could trace the spiral motion of the water as it was drawn up to +the clouds, which were every moment being augmented in their portentous +darkness. The sense of personal danger, Mr Ellis confesses, and the +certainty of instant destruction if brought within their vortex, +prevented a very careful observation of their appearance and +accompanying phenomena. + +The storm continued all day, and at intervals the party in the boat +beheld, through the driving clouds and rain, one or other of those +towering waterspouts; which, however, did not come nearer to them. + +It is interesting to read the record left by a Christian missionary of +his conflicting feelings on that terrible occasion. Mr Ellis believed +that all hope of escape was over, and his mind went through that ordeal +which must be the experience of every one who sees the steady approach +of speedy death. He says that during those hours when he sat awaiting +his doom, the thought of death itself did not make a deep impression. +"The struggle, the gasp, as the wearied arm should attempt to resist the +impetuous waves; the straining vision, that should linger on the last +ray of retiring light, as the deepening veil of water would gradually +conceal it for ever; and the rolling billows heaving over the sinking +and dying body, which, perhaps ere life should be extinct, might become +the prey of voracious inhabitants of the deep;"--these things caused +scarcely a thought, compared with the immediate prospect of the +disembodied spirit being ushered into the presence of its Maker; the +account to be rendered, and the awful and unalterable destiny that would +await it there. "These momentous objects," he says, "absorbed all the +powers of the mind, and produced an intensity of feeling, which, for a +long time, rendered me almost insensible to the storm, or the liquid +columns which threatened our destruction." + +It was now that the missionary could look back with deepest gratitude +upon that mercy which had first brought him to a knowledge of the +Saviour. "Him and Him alone," he adds, "I found to be a refuge, a rock +in the storm of contending feelings, on which my soul could cast the +anchor of its hope for pardon and acceptance before God... I could not +but think how awful would have been my state, had I in that hour been +ignorant of Christ, or had I neglected or despised the offers of his +mercy. Our prayers were offered to Him who is a present help in every +time of danger, for ourselves and those who sailed with us; and under +these and similar exercises several hours passed away." + +Those prayers were answered, for the waterspouts gradually disappeared, +and the boat got safe to land. + +In speaking of another waterspout, seen on a subsequent voyage, Mr +Ellis tells us that it was well defined,--an unbroken column from the +sea to the clouds, which on this occasion were neither dense nor +lowering. Around the outside of the liquid cylinder was a kind of thick +mist; and within, a substance resembling steam, ascending apparently +with a spiral motion. The water at its base was considerably agitated +with a whirling motion; while the spray which was thrown off from the +circle formed by the lower part of the column, rose several feet above +the level of the sea. It passed about a mile astern of the ship. + +Occasionally, when passing nearer to a ship than was deemed safe, a +waterspout has been dissipated by a cannon-shot, as represented in our +engraving. + +Such are the usual appearances and actions of waterspouts. They are +not, however, properly named, being simply whirlwinds at sea, instead of +whirlwinds on land. Professor Oersted suggests the name "storm-pillar," +as being a more appropriate term. + +It does not follow that a large ship would inevitably be destroyed if +brought within the vortex of a waterspout; but it is certain that she +would run the risk of being dismasted, and perhaps thrown on her +beam-ends. Navigators have not had sufficient experience of the power +of waterspouts to pronounce authoritatively on that point,--and it is to +be hoped they never will. + +Captain Beechy, in his narrative of a voyage to the Pacific, describes +one into which his ship actually entered, and from which he received +extremely rough handling before he was set free. But this might not +have been a very large waterspout; and it is not absolutely certain +whether he was quite within its vortex, or was merely brushed by the +skirts of its outer garment. + +Certain it is that waterspouts vary in size and in power; for we read of +them passing from the sea to the land, and there rooting up trees, +unroofing and overturning houses, dismounting cannon, emptying fish +ponds, half emptying harbours, and otherwise exhibiting a degree of +force that would undoubtedly sink the largest vessel that ever was +built, if brought thoroughly to bear upon it. + +The rate of motion in waterspouts varies. Sometimes they revolve +slowly, sometimes with the utmost rapidity. They often produce violent +noise, as, indeed, might be expected; and they are generally accompanied +by thunder and lightning, though not invariably so, for they are +sometimes observed when the heavens are clear and the sea calm. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +THE ARCTIC SEAS--THEIR CHARACTER, SCENERY, AND ATMOSPHERICAL ILLUSIONS. + +There is a tendency on the part of most writers on the subject of Polar +Regions--especially compilers--to dwell disproportionately on the gloomy +side of the picture; insomuch that readers are led, not to over-estimate +the grand and the terrible aspects of the polar oceans, but to +under-estimate the sweet and the beautiful influences that at certain +periods reign there. + +We quarrel not with authors for dwelling on the tremendous and the +awful. Too much cannot be said on these points; but while they do not +by any means paint the dark side of their picture too black, they fail +to touch in the lights with sufficient brilliancy. We have had some +personal experience of the arctic regions, and have found it extremely +difficult to get many persons--even educated men and women--to +understand that there _is_ a summer there, though a short one; that in +many places it is an uncommonly hot and excessively brilliant summer; +and that the sun, as if to make amends for its prolonged absence in +winter, shines all night as well as all day, blazing on the crystal +icebergs and pure snow (which _never_ disappear from those seas) with a +degree of splendour that renders the far north transcendently beautiful +and pre-eminently attractive. + +We admit freely that the prevailing character of arctic seas, during the +greater part of the year, is dark, gloomy, forbidding. But this is the +very reason why their brief but cheering smiles should be brought +prominently into the foreground, and, if they cannot in justice be dwelt +on long, at least be touched upon with emphasis. + +Why, in some of our cyclopaedia accounts of the realms of "thick-ribbed +ice," so much prominence is given to "the horrors and wide desolation of +the scene," and so much graphic power is expended in working up the +reader's imagination to a conception of the dreadful dangers and the +appalling terrors that await the madman who should dare to venture +within the arctic circle, that persons who have not been there might +well be tempted to shrink in affright from the very contemplation of a +region in which there does not appear to be one redeeming quality. + +We repeat, that we do not think the one side of the picture has been too +darkly painted,--but the other side has been painted too slightly. + +At the same time, we would caution our readers against jumping to the +opposite extreme. The dark side of the picture is in reality out of all +proportion to the light. And we do not hesitate to state our confirmed +opinion, that the arctic regions are more interesting to read about than +pleasant to dwell in. + +Having, then, defended the lights, let us commence our investigations +with the shadows. + +Those oceans lying within the arctic circle exhibit phenomena so grand, +so wonderful, and so varied, that they claim distinct and separate +treatment from the ocean as a whole. Here the extreme cold acts with +such power, and produces such extraordinary results, that it is +difficult to find words or similes by which to convey a just conception +of nature's aspects to the general reader. + +During nearly two-thirds of the year the arctic regions are under the +absolute dominion of winter; and for many weeks of that bitter season +they are shrouded with the mantle of a dark, sunless night. The entire +ocean is locked in the embrace of a covering of ice many feet thick, so +that its liquid aspect is thoroughly removed; and, owing to ice-masses +scattered over its surface, together with mounds of drifted snow, it +bears a much stronger resemblance to the land than to the sea. Gales of +wind sometimes sweep over those frozen plains in bitter fury, hurling +the snow into the air in vast eddying masses, and threatening +destruction to any living creature that may chance to be exposed to +them--not so much from their violence, however, as from the intense cold +of the atmosphere which is put in motion. But in regard to gales, +although there are no lack of them, they are neither so fierce nor so +frequent as are those of the torrid zone. + +It might be supposed that in such a climate animal life could scarcely +exist; but such is not the case. The inhabitants of part of the arctic +regions, named Esquimaux (more correctly Eskimos, with the accent on the +last syllable), are a stout, hardy, healthy race and the polar bears, +foxes, wolves, seals, musk-oxen, walruses, etcetera, that dwell there, +seem to enjoy their existence just as much as do the animals of more +favoured and warmer climes. + +During the short but hot summer of the arctic regions, the immense +masses of ice formed in winter are by no means cleared away. A great +part of the heat of early summer (there is no season there that merits +the name of spring) is spent in breaking up the solid crust of ice on +the sea, a large proportion of which is carried south by the currents +that flow to the equator, and melted long before they reach the +temperate zones. But a considerable quantity of broken ice-masses get +locked in narrow places or stranded on shallows; and although they +undergo the process of melting the whole summer, they are not much +diminished ere the returning frost stops the process and locks them in +the new ice of a succeeding winter. + +Thus there is no period of the year in which large quantities of ice may +not be seen floating about in the arctic seas. + +This fact it is that enables us to speak appropriately of the _scenery_ +of the Arctic Ocean. And assuredly this scenery of the ice is +exceedingly and strikingly beautiful. The imagination cannot conceive +the dazzling effect of a bright summer day in those regions, when the +ocean is clear as glass, and ice-humps and ice-mountains of every shape +and size are glittering in the sun's rays with intense brilliancy, while +the delicate whiteness of these floating islands, and the magical +atmospheric illusions by which they are frequently surrounded, render +the scene pre-eminently fairy-like. + +All the navigators who have penetrated into the arctic seas speak with +enthusiasm of the splendour of floating ice-masses. They take the most +curious and fantastic shapes; sometimes appearing like great cities of +white marble, with domes and towers and spires in profusion; sometimes +looming huge and grand like fortresses, and many of them with their +summits overhanging so much as to suggest the idea that they are about +to fall. This indeed, they often do, adding to the grandeur of the +scene, and not a little to the danger, should ships chance to be in the +neighbourhood. + +The atmospheric illusions, before mentioned, are the result of different +temperatures existing within a few miles of each other, and which are +caused by the presence of large bodies of ice. The effect of this is to +cause the ice-masses on the horizon to appear as if floating in the air, +and to distort them into all sorts of shapes, even turning them upside +down, and thus affording to an innovative mind a most ample and +attractive field wherein to expatiate. + +To ascertain the causes of facts and effects so curious must be +interesting to all who have inquiring minds. We will, therefore, +attempt to describe and account for arctic phenomena in the following +chapters as simply as may be. + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +FORMATION OF ICE--DANGERS OF DISRUPTING ICE--ANECDOTE--DRIFTING ICE-- +DRIFT OF THE "FOX"--"NIPPING" ANECDOTE--LOSS OF THE "BREADALBANE." + +It is well known that when fresh water becomes so cold that its +temperature is 32 degrees of Fahrenheit's scale, it loses its liquid +form and becomes ice. A somewhat lower temperature than this is +necessary to freeze salt water; the reason being, that greater force is +required to expel the salt which the sea holds in solution,--which salt +is always more or less expelled in the process of freezing. + +Ice commences to form in the shape of needles, which shoot out at angles +from each other. In smooth water, under the influence of intense cold, +the process is rapid, and a thin cake soon covers the water, and +increases in thickness hour by hour. But when the sea is agitated the +process is retarded, and the fine needles are broken up into what arctic +navigators call _sludge_. This, however, soon begins to cake, and is +broken by the swell into small cakes; which, as they thicken, again +unite, and are again broken up into larger masses. These masses, by +rubbing against each other, have their edges slightly rounded up, and in +this form receive the name of _pancake_ ice. + +When a quantity of ice covers the ocean in a wide level sheet of +considerable extent, it is called an _ice-field_. Fields of this kind +are often seen by navigators hundreds of miles in extent, and nearly +thirty feet thick. Ice of such thickness, however, only shows five or +six feet above water. When fields are broken by heavy ocean-swells, the +edges are violently forced up, and fall in debris on the surface; thus +_hummocks_ or mounds are formed. + +When field-ice breaks up under the influence of an ocean-swell, caused +by a storm, the results are terrific. + +An exceedingly graphic account of an incident of this kind is given by +Dr Brown, in his "History of the Propagation of Christianity." He +writes:-- + +"The missionaries met a sledge with Esquimaux, turning in from the sea, +who threw out some hints that it might be as well for them to return. +After some time, their own Esquimaux hinted that there was a +ground-swell under the ice. It was then scarcely perceptible, except on +lying down and applying the ear close to the ice, when a hollow, +disagreeable, grating sound was heard ascending from the abyss. As the +motion of the sea under the ice had grown more perceptible, they became +alarmed, and began to think it prudent to keep close to the shore. The +ice also had fissures in many places, some of which formed chasms of one +or two feet; but as these are not uncommon in ice even in its best +state, and the dogs easily leap over them, they are frightful only to +strangers. + +"As the wind rose to a storm, the swell had now increased so much that +its effects on the ice were extraordinary, and really alarming. The +sledges, instead of gliding smoothly along as on an even surface, +sometimes ran with violence after the dogs, and sometimes seemed with +difficulty to ascend a rising hill. Noises, too, like the report of +cannon, were now distinctly heard in many directions, from the bursting +of the ice at a distance. Alarmed at these frightful phenomena, our +travellers drove with all haste towards the shore; and, as they +approached it, the prospect before them was tremendous. The ice having +burst loose from the rocks, was tossed to and fro, and broken in a +thousand pieces against the precipices with a dreadful noise; which, +added to the raging of the sea, the roaring of the wind, and the driving +of the snow, so overpowered them as almost completely to deprive them of +the use of their eyes and ears. + +"To make the land was now the only resource that remained, but it was +with the utmost difficulty that the frightened dogs could be driven +forward; and as the whole body of the ice frequently sank below the +summits of the rocks, and then rose above them, the only time for +landing was the moment it gained the level of the coast--a circumstance +which rendered the attempt extremely nice and hazardous. + +"Both sledges, however, succeeded in gaining the shore, and were drawn +up off the beach, though not without great difficulty. Scarcely had +they reached it, when that part of the ice from which they had just +escaped burst asunder, and the water, rushing up from beneath, instantly +precipitated it into the ocean. In a moment, as if by a signal, the +whole mass of ice for several miles along the coast, and extending as +far as the eye could reach, began to break up, and to be overwhelmed by +the waves. The spectacle was awfully grand. The immense fields of ice +rising out of the ocean clashing against each other, and then plunging +into the deep with a violence which no language can describe, and with a +noise like the discharge of a thousand cannon, was a sight which must +have filled the most unreflecting mind with feelings of solemnity. + +"The Brethren were overwhelmed with amazement at their miraculous +escape, and even the Esquimaux expressed gratitude to God for their +deliverance." + +Such is the terrible aspect in which field-ice is seen when broken up +and converted into smaller masses or _floes_. When these lie closely +together the mass is called _pack-ice_; in which shape it usually drifts +away with the southern currents, and, separating as it travels south, is +met with in loose floating masses, of every fantastic form. There is +always, as we have said, a large quantity of floe and pack-ice in the +polar seas, which becomes incorporated with the new ice of the +succeeding winter; and not infrequently whale and discovery ships get +frozen into the pack, and remain there as firmly embedded as if they lay +high and dry on land. When the pack is thus re-frozen, it usually +remains stationary; but there are occasions and circumstances in which +the entire body of a pack drifts slowly southward even during the whole +year; showing clearly that oceanic circulation is by no means arrested +by the icy hand of the hyperborean winter. + +A very remarkable drift of this kind is recorded by Captain McClintock +of the _Fox_, which is worthy of being noticed here, as illustrative of +the subject we are now considering and also as showing in a remarkable +manner the awful dangers to which navigators may be exposed by the +disruption of the pack in spring, and the wonderful, almost miraculous, +manner in which they are delivered from imminent destruction. + +In attempting to cross Baffin's Bay, by penetrating what is called the +"middle ice," the _Fox_ was beset, and finally frozen in for the winter; +and here, although their voyage may be said to have just commenced, they +were destined to spend many months in helpless inactivity and +comparative peril and privation. Their little vessel lay in the centre +of a field of ice of immense extent; so large, indeed, that they could +not venture to undertake a journey to ascertain its limits. Yet this +field slowly and steadily descended Baffin's Bay during the whole +winter, and passed over no fewer than 1385 statute miles in the space of +242 days, during which period the _Fox_ was firmly embedded in it! + +It is with difficulty the mind can form any adequate conception of the +position of those voyagers;--unable to move from their icy bed, yet +constantly drifting over miles and miles of ocean; uncertain as to the +where or the when of their deliverance from the pack; exposed to the +terrible dangers of disrupting ice, and surrounded by the depressing +gloom of the long arctic night. + +At length deliverance came; but it came surrounded by terrors. In +February, McClintock writes thus: "Daylight reveals to us evidences of +vast ice-movements having taken place during the dark months, when we +fancied all was still and quiet; and we now see how greatly we have been +favoured, what innumerable chances of destruction we have unconsciously +escaped. A few days ago, the ice suddenly cracked within ten yards of +the ship, and gave her such a smart shock that every one rushed on deck +with astonishing alacrity. One of these sudden disruptions occurred +between me and the ship, when I was returning from the iceberg. The sun +was just setting as I found myself cut off... At length I reached a +place where the jagged edges of the floes met; so crossed, and got +safely on board." + +Again, in March, he says, "Last night the ice closed, shutting up our +lane; but its opposite sides continued for several hours to move vast +each other, rubbing off all projections, crushing and forcing out of the +water masses four feet thick. Although one hundred and twenty yards +distant, this pressure shook the ship and cracked the intervening ice." + +Soon after that, a heavy gale burst upon them from the south-east, +encircling them with snow-drift so dense that they could neither hear +nor see what was going on twenty yards off. At night the ship became +suddenly detached from her wintry bed, and heeled over to the storm, +inducing them to believe that the whole pack had been broken in, and was +pressing against them. This was not the case. A large mass of ice had +protected them; but at a distance of about fifty yards, ice of four and +a half feet thick had been crushed to atoms. Soon after, the protecting +mass yielded, and the _Fox_ received a nip which lifted her stern about +a foot, while occasional groaning from her sturdy little hull replied to +the wild surgings of the ice without. + +But all this was as nothing compared with the scene of desperate turmoil +and confusion which took place when the ice finally broke up, and a gale +raised a fearful swell; so that the _Fox_ found herself surrounded by +huge masses, which tossed and ground against each other furiously, and +any two of which pieces could have crushed in her sides as if she had +been made of walnut shell. Gradually the pack opened out, and the +vessel, by aid of wind and steam, was mercifully delivered from her +dangerous position. + +Before passing from the subject of risk to navigators to the +consideration of other forms and aspects of polar ice, let us take a +glance at an effectual case of nipping. There have been many partial +and severe nips, the descriptions of which are all more or less graphic; +but few ships have come so suddenly to the end of their career as did +the _Breadalbane_, a small vessel that was used as a transport ship to +the expedition in search of Sir John Franklin in 1852. One who was on +board when it occurred thus describes it:-- + +_Sunday, August 21st_.--About ten minutes past four, the ice passing the +ship awoke me, and the door of my cabin, from the pressure, opened. I +hurriedly put on my clothes, and on getting on deck found some hands on +the ice endeavouring to save the boats; but the latter were instantly +crushed to pieces. They little thought, when using their efforts to +save the boats, that the ship was in so perilous a situation. + +I went forward to hail the _Phoenix_ (another ship that was fortunately +near) for men to save the boats; and whilst doing so, the ropes by which +we were secured parted, and a heavy nip took us, making every timber +creak, and the ship tremble all over. I looked in the main hold, and +saw the beams giving way. I hailed those on the ice, and told them of +our critical situation, they not for one moment suspecting it. I then +rushed to my cabin, hauled out my portmanteau on deck, and roared like a +bull to those in their beds to jump out and save their lives. The +startling effect on them might be more easily imagined than described. +On reaching the deck, those on the ice called out to me to jump over the +side, that the ship was going over. I left my portmanteau, and jumped +over the side on the loose ice, and with difficulty, and with the +assistance of those on the ice, succeeded in getting on the unbroken +part, with the loss of the slippers I had on when quitting the vessel, +with wet feet, etcetera. The cold was little thought of at the exciting +moment--life, not property, being the object to be saved. + +"After being on the ice about five minutes, the timbers, etcetera, in +the ship cracking up as matches would in the hand, it eased for a short +time; and I, with some others, returned to the ship, with the view of +saving some of our effects. + +"Captain Inglefield now came running towards the ship, and ordered me to +see if the ice was through it. On looking down into the hold, I saw all +the beams, etcetera, falling about in a manner that would have been +certain death to me had I ventured down there. But there was no +occasion for that (I mean to ascertain the fact of the ice being +through), it being too evident that the ship could not last many +minutes. I then sounded the well, and found five feet in the hold; and, +whilst in the act of sounding, a heavier nip than before pressed out the +starboard bow, and the ice was forced right into the forecastle. Every +one then abandoned the ship, with what few clothes they saved--some with +only what they had on. The ship now began to sink fast, and from the +time her bowsprit touched the ice until her mast-heads were out of +sight, did not occupy above one minute and a half! + +"It was a very sad and unceremonious way of being turned out of our +ship. From the time the first nip took her, until her disappearance, +did not occupy more than fifteen minutes." + +Such is the account of the fate of the _Breadalbane_. While we read it, +we cannot help feeling that many arctic ships must have perished in a +similar manner. It is wonderful, nevertheless, how many of those that +dare the dangers of the ice survive the conflict. Undoubtedly this is +owing, to a large extent, to the fact that ships' bottoms are rounded; +so that when a severe nip takes place, there is a tendency in the ice to +slip under their rounded bottoms, and squeeze the vessels up out of the +water. Were it not for this, few ships that have gone to those seas +would ever have returned. + +A catastrophe such as that which befell the _Breadalbane_ shows the +immense power of field-ice. Hundreds of somewhat similar incidents +might be cited to illustrate this power; but we content ourselves with +the selection of one instance, which exhibits it in a remarkable manner, +and at the same time shows the way in which heavy vessels are sometimes +forced out of the water. + +In the year 1836, Captain Back commanded the _Terror_, which was sent +out to make geographical discoveries in the polar regions, and spent the +winter of that year in the ice. Few ships have undergone severer tests +than did the _Terror_ on that voyage. The severest treatment she +experienced was in the spring, when the disruption of the winter ice +began to take place. The evening of the 7th of March was specially +fraught with danger. We quote the gallant commander's graphic +account:-- + +"Ominous rushing sounds were heard far off to the north-east and +north-west. These gradually drew nearer as the flood made its way, +either under the compact bodies that withstood the shock, or along the +cracks and openings--gaining in these latter a furious velocity, to +which everything seemed to yield. + +"It happened that there were several of these around the ship; and when +they opened on us like so many conduits pouring their contents to a +common centre, the concussion was absolutely appalling, rending the +lining and bulkheads in every part, loosening some shores and +stanchions, so that the slightest effort would have thrown them down, +and compressing others with such force as to make the turpentine ooze +out of their extremities. One fir plank, placed horizontally between +the beams and the shores actually glittered with globules. At the same +time the pressure was going on from the larboard side, where the three +heaviest parts of the ruin of the floe remained, cracked here and there, +but yet adhering in firm and solid bodies. These, of course, were +irresistible; and after much groaning, splitting, and cracking, +accompanied by sounds like the explosion of cannon, the ship rose fore +and aft, and heeled over about ten degrees to starboard." + +Again, on the 11th, Back says: "At this time she showed symptoms of +suffering in the hull, which was evidently undergoing a severe ordeal. +Inexplicable noises, in which the sharp sounds of splitting and the +harsher ones of grinding were most distinct, came in quick succession, +and then again stopped suddenly, leaving all so still that not even a +breath was heard. + +"In an instant the ship was felt to rise under our feet, and the roaring +and rushing commenced with a deafening din alongside, abeam and astern, +at one and the same instant. Alongside, the grinding masses held the +ship tight as in a vice; while the overwhelming pressure of the entire +body, advancing from the west, so wedged the stern and starboard +quarter, that the greatest apprehensions were entertained for the +stern-post and framework abaft. + +"Some idea of the power exerted on this occasion may be gathered from +this:--At the moment which I am now describing, the fore-part of the +ship was literally buried as high as the flukes of the anchors in a dock +of perpendicular walls of ice; so that, in that part, she might well +have been thought immovable. Still, such was the force applied to her +abaft, that after much cracking and perceptible yielding of the beams, +which seemed to curve upwards, she actually rose by sheer pressure above +the dock forward; and then, with sudden jerks, did the same abaft. +During these convulsions, many of the carpenters and others stationed +below were violently thrown down on the deck, as people are in an +earthquake. It was a moment of intense suspense. + +"On the 16th, another rush drove irresistibly on the larboard quarter +and stern, and forcing the ship ahead, raised her on the ice. A chaotic +ruin followed... The ship was careened fully four streaks, and sprang a +leak as before. Scarcely were ten minutes left us for the expression of +our astonishment that anything of human build could outlive such +assaults, when another equally violent rush succeeded; and in its way +toward the starboard quarter threw up a rolling wave thirty feet high, +crowned by a blue square mass of many tons, resembling the entire side +of a house, which, after hanging for some time in doubtful poise on the +ridge, at length fell with a crash into the hollow, in which, as in a +cavern, the after-part of the ship seemed embedded. It was, indeed, an +awful crisis, rendered more frightful from the mistiness of the night +and dimness of the moon. + +"The poor ship cracked and trembled violently, and no one could say that +the next minute would not be her last--and, indeed, his own too, for +with her our means of safety would probably perish." + +It is unnecessary to give additional instances of this kind, in order to +show the terrible power of field-ice. Indeed, it requires little in the +way of illumination to prove that masses of solid matter, many thousands +of tons in weight, can, when in motion, utterly destroy the most +powerful engines of human construction. + +We shall now turn our attention to another, and a very prominent form, +in which arctic ice presents itself--namely, that of icebergs. + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +ICEBERGS--THEIR APPEARANCE AND FORMS--THEIR CAUSE--GLACIERS--THEIR +NATURE AND ORIGIN--ANECDOTE OF SCORESBY--RISK AMONG ICEBERGS--MCCLURE'S +EXPERIENCE. + +There are not only ice-fields, ice-floes, etcetera, in the polar seas, +but there are ice-mountains, or bergs. + +It was long a matter of uncertainty as to where and how those immense +mountains, that are met with occasionally at sea, were formed. We are +now in a position to tell definitely where they originate, and how they +are produced. They are not masses of frozen sea water. Their +birth-place is in the valleys of the far north, and they are formed by +the accumulation of the snows and ice of ages. This is a somewhat +general way of stating the matter; but our subsequent explanations will, +we trust, make our meaning abundantly clear. + +Icebergs are found floating in great numbers in the arctic seas. They +drift southward each spring with the general body of polar ice, and +frequently travel pretty far south in the Atlantic before the heat of +the water and atmosphere united accomplishes their dissolution. They +sometimes travel as far south as Florida with the southerly current that +flows along that coast; but the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, together +with its northerly flow, form an impassable barrier between these +ice-mountains and Europe. + +Icebergs assume every variety of form, and almost every size. They +sometimes resemble castles, sometimes churches with glittering spires, +and sometimes the peaked and jagged mountains of Norway. They are also +frequently seen in the form of immense misshapen and top-heavy masses. + +In size they vary from one hundred to seven or eight hundred feet in +height. One iceberg, seen by Ross in Baffin's Bay, was above two miles +in length, nearly the same in width, and fifty feet high. But in +stating this, we have not given the reader any idea of its vast +proportions; for it is well known that all icebergs, or masses of ice, +have a much greater proportion of their bulk under than above water--in +other words, they sink very deep. The relative proportion that sinks +depends on the nature of the ice. Of some kinds, there is usually ten +times as much below as there is above water; of other kinds, there may +be eight or five parts below. In all cases there is much more below +than above so that a mountain of a hundred feet high--if afloat--may be +safely calculated to be a mass of ice not far short of a thousand feet +thick. + +As these bergs float southward with the currents, they melt very +rapidly. The heat of the sun and the action of the waves gradually +round off the sharp angles and topple down the spires that characterised +them in the land of their birth. The process of dissolution, too, is +carried on internally; for rain and melted water on the surface +percolates through the mass, rendering it porous. As the waves cut away +the base, the centre of gravity is thrown out, and the whole berg turns +over with a terrible crash. Sometimes loud reports like cannon-shots +are heard, and the huge mountain splits asunder; while, not +unfrequently, the whole berg falls into a heap of chaotic ruins, and +floats away in a mass of smaller pieces which disappear gradually in +their parent sea. + +The formation of icebergs has, as we have said, puzzled mankind for many +years. Their existence has long been known: for, even before men dared +to venture their lives in the polar regions, navigators, in crossing the +Atlantic Ocean, frequently met with these marble-like mountains; and, +what is worse, sometimes ran at full speed against them, and were sunk +with all on board. Bergs are frequently enveloped in dense fogs, caused +by the cold atmosphere by which they are surrounded condensing the +moisture of the warmer atmosphere which they encounter on their voyage +southward; hence they are exceedingly dangerous to navigation. But now +to speak of their formation. + +Many of the great valleys of the far north are completely filled up with +solid ice. Observe, we do not say that they are merely covered over +with ice; they are absolutely filled up with it from top to bottom. +Those ice-masses are known by the name of glaciers; and they are found +in most of the elevated regions of the Earth,--on the Alps and the +mountains of Norway, for instance,--but they exist in greater abundance +about the poles than elsewhere. + +Glaciers _never_ melt. They have existed for unknown ages, probably +since the world began; and they will, in all likelihood, continue to +exist until the world comes to an end,--at least until the present +economy of the world terminates. They began with the first fall of +snow, and as falls of snow during the long winters of the polar regions +are frequent and heavy, the accumulated masses are many feet deep, +especially in places where drifts are gathered--sometimes fifteen, +twenty, thirty, and even forty feet deep. The summer sun could not melt +such drifts entirely. New snow was added each winter, until the valleys +of the far north were filled up; and so they remain filled up to this +day. + +In order to understand the nature of glaciers clearly, let us turn back +to those remote ages that rolled over this Earth long before man was +created. Let us in spirit leap back to the time when no living creature +existed, even before the great mastodon began to leave his huge +foot-prints on the sands of time. + +We have reached one of the large valleys of the arctic regions. It is +solemn, grand, and still. No merry birds, no prowling creatures, are +there to disturb the universal calm. The Creator has not yet formed the +living creatures and pronounced them "very good." It is the world's +first winter. As we look upward to the sky, we observe the first white +snow-flakes falling gently to the ground. They reach it, and, for the +first time, that valley is covered with a garment of virgin snow. The +valley is upwards of two miles broad. It rises from the sea, and goes +far back into the mountains, perhaps to the extent of ten or twelve +miles. The mountains that flank it are five or six thousand feet high. +We have seen such valleys in Norway, within the arctic circle. Before +that first winter has passed, many and many a fall of snow has thickened +and pressed down that first coat; and many a furious storm has caught up +the snow from the mountain-tops and swept it into the valley, adding to +and piling up the mass, and packing it firmly down. + +Spring arrives. The short but warm arctic summer bursts upon that vale, +melting the surface of the snow; and the water thus produced sinks +through the mass, converting it into a sort of thick slush--half snow, +half water,--not liquid, yet not solid; just solid enough to lie there +apparently without motion; yet just liquid enough to creep by slow, +absolutely imperceptible degrees, down the valley. The snow in all the +mountain gorges is similarly affected: it creeps (it cannot be said to +flow) out and joins that in the vale. But we cannot perceive any of the +motion of which we are writing. The mass of snow seems to be as still +and motionless as the rocks on which we stand; nay, if we choose we may +walk on its hard surface almost without leaving the slightest print of +our foot. But if we throw a large stone on the surface of the snow and +mark the spot, and return again after many days, we shall find that the +stone has descended the valley a short distance. We shall also observe +that the snow has now a variety of markings on its surface; which might +lead us to fancy, had we not known better, that it had once been a +river, which, while raging down to the sea with all its curling rapids +and whirling eddies, had been arrested in all instant by the ice-king +and frozen solid,--in fact, it has all the graceful lines and forms of +fluidity, with all the steady, motionless aspect of solidity. It really +moves, this vast body of snow; but, like the hour hand of a watch, its +motion cannot be recognised, though we should observe it with prolonged, +unflagging attention. We have called it a vast body of snow, but this +is only comparatively speaking. It will be vaster yet before we have +done with it. At present it is but a thick semi-fluid covering, lying +at the bottom of this ancient arctic vale. + +The brief summer ends. Much of the winter snow has been melted and +returned to the sea; but much, very much more, is still lying deep upon +the ground. The world's second winter comes. The first frost +effectually puts a stop to all the melting and moving that we have been +describing. The snow-river no longer moves--it is arrested. The water +no longer percolates through the snow--it is frozen. The mass is no +longer semi-fluid--it is solid ice; and the first step in the process of +a glacier's formation is begun. + +Thereafter this process is continued from year to year, each winter +adding _largely_ to its bulk, each summer deducting _slightly_ +therefrom. The growing mass of ice ascends the mountain-sides, swallows +the rocks and shrubs and trees in its progress, until its body becomes a +thousand feet thick: the extreme summits of the mountain-peaks alone +tower above the snowy waste, and the mass at the bottom is now, by the +pressure of superincumbent masses, pure ice, hard and clear as crystal. + +When the great glacier grows old it still maintains its stealthy +downward motion during every summer. It has reached the shore, and has +been pushed, like a huge white tongue, out into the sea. + +"But what has all this to do with icebergs?" it may be inquired. Much, +very much. It is common enough, in commenting on a child, to speak of +the parent. The glacier is the _mother_ of the iceberg. + +When, in the world's early morning, the embryo glacier reached the sea, +its thin edges were easily broken off by the waves; but as it increased +and still further encroached, these edges became thicker and thicker, +until at last a wall of pure ice, several hundred feet high, presented +its glittering front to the ocean. It was hard and massive; the sun of +summer had little effect on its frigid face, and it seemed to bid +defiance to the sea itself. But things often are not what they seem. +Each billow sapped its foundation; it soon began to overhang its base. +At length the cohesion of the mass was not sufficient to sustain its +weight. A rending, accompanied by sounds like heaven's artillery, took +place; the crystal mountain bowed its brow and fell with thunderous +crash upon the water; then, rocking slowly under the impulse of its +dread plunge, the first iceberg floated off to sea! + +It is right to remark here that this explanation is, to some extent, +disputed--at least there is a difference of opinion as to the _manner_ +in which the iceberg leaves its parent glacier. There is no dispute as +to its origin. This difference will be explained shortly in a quotation +from Dr Kane's work; meanwhile, in support of the present theory, let +us listen to the words of one who saw with his own eyes something +similar to what has been described. Dr Scoresby, than whom a better +man never explored the arctic seas, says:-- + +"In July 1818, I was particularly fortunate in witnessing one of the +grandest effects which these polar glaciers ever present. A strong +north-westerly swell, having for some hours been beating on the shore, +had loosened a number of fragments attached to the iceberg, and various +heaps of broken ice denoted recent shoots of the seaward edge. As we +advanced towards it, with a view of proceeding close to its base, I +observed a few little pieces fall from the top; and while my eye was +fixed upon the place, an immense column, probably fifty feet square, and +one hundred and fifty feet high, began to leave the parent ice at the +top, and, leaning majestically forward, with an accelerated velocity +fell, with an awful crash, into the sea. + +"The water into which it plunged was converted into an appearance of +vapour or smoke, like that from a furious cannonading. The noise was +equal to that of thunder, which it nearly resembled. The column which +fell was nearly square, and in magnitude resembled a church. It broke +into thousands of pieces. This circumstance was a happy caution, for we +might inadvertently have gone to the very base of the icy cliff from +whence masses of considerable magnitude were continually breaking!" + +Now, this incident suggests the probability, that, had the face of the +glacier projected into deep water, the mass which broke off might have +fallen into the sea without being broken to pieces, and might have +floated away as a berg. We confess, however, to be partial to the view +expressed by some writers, that the great glaciers continue year by year +to thrust their thick tongues out to sea, until the projecting masses +reach water sufficiently deep to float them, when they are quietly +cracked off from their parent and carried away without any fall or +plunge. The following remarks by Dr Kane will make this more clear. +Writing of the iceberg, he says: + +"So far from falling into the sea, broken by its weight from the parent +glacier, it rises from the sea. The process is at once gradual and +comparatively quiet. The idea of icebergs being discharged, so +universal among systematic writers, and so recently admitted by myself, +seems to me at variance with the regulated and progressive action of +nature. Developed by such a process, the thousands of bergs which +throng these seas should keep the air and water in perpetual commotion-- +one fearful succession of explosive detonations and propagated waves. +But it is only the lesser masses falling into deep waters which could +justify the popular opinion. The enormous masses of the Great Glacier +[of Greenland] are propelled step by step, and year by year, until, +reaching water capable of supporting them, they are floated off, to be +lost in the temperatures of other regions... + +"The height of the ice-wall at the nearest point was about three hundred +feet, measured from the water's edge; and the unbroken right line of its +diminishing perspective showed that this might be regarded as its +constant measurement. It seemed, in fact, a great icy table-land, +abutting with a clean precipice against the sea. This is, indeed, +characteristic of all those arctic glaciers which issue from central +reservoirs, or _mers de glace_, upon the fords or bays, and is +strikingly in contrast with the dependent or hanging glacier of the +ravines." + +Elsewhere the same writer speaks of this glacier as a line of cliff, +rising in a solid glassy wall to a height of three hundred feet above +the water-level, and with an _unfathomable_ depth below it; and its +curved face, sixty miles in length, from Cape Agassiz to Cape Forbes, +vanished into unknown space at not more than a single day's rail-road +travel from the pole. The interior with which it communicated, and from +which it issued, was an unsurveyed _mer de glace_, or sea of ice, of +apparently boundless dimensions; and from one part of this great cliff +he _saw_ long lines of huge bergs floating slowly away. + +Here, we think, is ice enough and of sufficient dimensions to account +for the largest bergs that were ever beheld. + +It will be at once seen, then, that icebergs, though found floating in +the sea, are not necessarily of the sea. They are composed entirely of +fresh water, and arctic ships can at any time procure a plentiful supply +of good soft drinkable water from the pools that are formed in the +hollows of the bergs. + +The risk of approaching icebergs in the arctic regions is not so great +as when they are found floating further south; because when in their +native regions they are comparatively tough, whereas on their southern +journeys they become more or less disintegrated--in fact, the blow of an +axe is sometimes sufficient to cause a rent, which in its turn will +induce other rents and failings asunder, so that the whole mass runs the +risk of being entirely broken up. Hence the danger of ships, in certain +circumstances, venturing to anchor to them. Nevertheless this is a +common practice--sometimes a necessity--among discovery ships and +whalers. It is a convenient practice too; for many a vessel has been +saved from absolute destruction by getting under the lee of a good sound +iceberg, where she has lain as safely, for the time being, as if in a +harbour. + +When Captain McClure was endeavouring to make the north-west passage in +1851, he was saved, from what appeared to be at least very probable +destruction, by a small iceberg. On the 17th of September he writes: + +"There were several heavy floes in the vicinity. One, full six miles in +length, passed at the rate of two knots, crushing everything that +impeded its progress, and grazed our starboard-bow. Fortunately there +was but young ice upon the opposite side, which yielded to the pressure; +had it otherwise occurred, the vessel must inevitably have been cut +asunder. In the afternoon we secured to a moderately-sized iceberg, +drawing eight fathoms, which appeared to offer a fair refuge, and from +which we never afterwards parted." + +To this lump of ice the ship clung with the tenacity of a bosom friend, +and followed it, literally, through thick and thin! There is something +almost ludicrous, as well as striking, in McClure's account of their +connection with this bit of ice. It conveyed them to their furthest +north-east position, and back round the Princess Royal Islands--passed +the largest within five hundred yards--returned along the coast of +Prince Albert's Land--and finally froze in at latitude 70 degrees 50 +minutes north, longitude 117 degrees 55 minutes west, on the 30th +September; during which circumnavigation they received many severe +"nips," and were frequently driven close to the shore, from which their +dear friend the iceberg, small though he was, kept them off. + +Icebergs assume almost every conceivable form, and are seen of every +size--sometimes, also, in great numbers. Scoresby mentions one occasion +on which he was surrounded by bergs to the number of several hundreds. + +Now, all this ice that we have been speaking of, besides being, in a +secondary way, a passive agent in the affairs of man (chiefly in barring +his progress northward), is one of the most potent agents in the economy +of nature. It is the means by which the world is kept cool enough for +man and beast to dwell in. The polar regions--north and south--are, as +it were, the world's refrigerators; tempering the heated air of the +south, and, in connection with the torrid zone, spreading throughout the +Earth those beneficial influences which gladden the sphere of man's +temporal existence. + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +ICE AN AGENT IN TRANSPORTING BOULDERS--HOW THIS COMES ABOUT--DR. KANE'S +OBSERVATIONS--LONG NIGHT IN WINTER AND LONG DAY IN SUMMER--EXTREME +DARKNESS--INFLUENCE ON DOGS--INTENSE COLD--EFFECT ON THE SEA. + +There are many things in this world which, up to within a few years +back, have been to men a source of surprise and mystery. + +Some of these problems have been solved by recent travellers, and not a +few of them are referable to polar oceans and ice. + +In many parts of our coasts we find very striking and enormously large +boulder-stones lying on the beach, perfectly isolated, and their edges +rounded away like pebbles, as if they had been rolled on some +antediluvian beach strewn with Titanic stones. These boulders are +frequently found upon the loose sands of the sea-shore, far removed from +any rocks or mountains from which they might be supposed to have been +broken; and, more than that, totally different in their nature from the +geological formations of the districts in which they are found. "Whence +came these?" has been the question of the inquisitive of all ages, "and +how came they there?" + +There may, for aught we know to the contrary, be more than one answer to +these questions; but there is at least one which is quite satisfactory +as to how and whence at least some of them have come. Ice was the means +of conveying these boulders to their present positions. + +It has been said that once upon a time a large part of this country was +under the dominion of ice, even as the polar regions and some of the +mountains and valleys of Norway are at the present day; that the +boulders we see in elevated places were conveyed thither by glacier +action; and that when the glacial period passed away, they were left +there on the hill-sides--sometimes almost on the mountain-tops. But +this is not the question we are considering just now. We are now +inquiring into the origin of those huge boulders that are found upon our +coasts and on the coasts of other lands--boulders which could not have +rolled down from the hills, for there are no hills at all near many of +them; and those hills that are near some of them are of different +geological formation. + +This question will be answered at once, and one of the phenomena of +arctic ice and oceanic agency will be exhibited, by reference to the +recent discoveries of the celebrated arctic voyager, Dr Kane of the +American Navy. + +While wintering far beyond the head of Baffin's Bay, and beyond the most +northerly point, in that direction, that had at that time been reached +by any previous traveller, Dr Kane made many interesting observations +and discoveries. He seems to have penetrated deep into the heart of +Nature's northern secrets. Among other things, he ascertained the +manner in which boulders are transported from their northern home. + +The slow, creeping movement of glaciers, to which we have already +referred, is one means whereby large boulders are formed. At the lower +edge of one of the glaciers of Norway we saw boulders, thirty or forty +feet in diameter, which had been rolled and forced, probably for ages, +down the valley by the glacier, and thrust out on the sea-beach, where +they lay with their angles and corners rubbed off and their surfaces +rounded and smoothed as completely as those of the pebbles by which they +were surrounded. + +Had these boulders been formed in the arctic regions, they might have +been thrust out upon the thick solid crust of the frozen sea, which in +time would have been broken off and floated away; thus rafting the +boulders to other shores. The formation of boulders, and their +positions, are facts that we have seen. Their being carried out to sea +by ice-rafts is a fact that Dr Kane has seen and recorded. On the wild +rocky shores where his ship was set fast, there was a belt of ice lining +the margin of the sea, which he termed the "ice-belt," or the +"ice-foot." This belt never melted completely, and was usually fast to +the shore. In fact it was that portion of the sea-ice which was left +behind each spring when the general body of ice was broken up and swept +away. Referring to this, he writes: + +"The spot at which we landed I have called Cape James Kent. It was a +lofty headland, and the land-ice which hugged its base was covered with +rocks from the cliffs above. As I looked over this ice-belt, losing +itself in the far distance, and covered with its millions of tons of +rubbish, greenstones, limestones, chlorite, slates, rounded and angular, +massive and ground to powder, its importance as a geological agent, in +the transportation of drift, struck me with great force. + +"Its whole substance was studded with these varied contributions from +the shore; and further to the south, upon the now frozen waters of +Marshall Bay, I could recognise raft after raft from the last year's +ice-belt which had been caught by the winter, each one laden with its +heavy freight of foreign material. + +"The water torrents and thaws of summer unite with the tides in +disengaging the ice-belt from the coast; but it is not uncommon for +large bergs to drive against it and carry away the growths of many +years. I have found masses that had been detached in this way, floating +many miles out at sea--long, symmetrical tables, two hundred feet long +by eighty broad, covered with large angular rocks and boulders, and +seemingly impregnated throughout with detrited matter. These rafts in +Marshall Bay were so numerous, that could they have melted as I saw +them, the bottom of the sea would have presented a more curious study +for the geologist than the boulder-covered lines of our middle +latitudes. One boulder in particular had had its origin in a valley +where rounded fragments of water-washed greenstone had been poured out +by the torrents and frozen into the coast-ice of the belt. The +attrition of subsequent matter had truncated the great egg-shaped rock, +and worn its sides into a striated face, whose scratches still indicated +the line of water-flow." + +So, then, when we next meet with a huge isolated boulder on any of our +flat beaches, we may gaze at it with additional interest, when we +reflect that, perchance, it was carried thither by the ocean, countless +ages ago, from the arctic regions, on a gigantic raft of ice; after +having been, at a still more remote period, torn from its cliffs by some +mighty glacier and slowly rolled and rounded, for hundreds of years +perhaps down the scarred slopes of its native valley. + +The primary cause of the intense and prolonged cold of the arctic +regions is the shortness of the time during which they are under the +influence of the sun's rays. For a few months in summer the sun shines +brightly, but, owing to the position of the globe, obliquely on the +poles. During part of that period it shines at mid-night as well as at +mid-day. Put during the greater part of the year its beams throw but a +feeble light there, and for several months in winter there is absolutely +no day at all--nothing but one long dismal night of darkness, that seems +as if the bright orb of day had vanished from the heavens for ever. + +The length of this prolonged day in summer, and this dreary night in +winter, depends, of course, upon latitude. The length of both increases +as we approach the poles. The long daylight in summer is exceedingly +delightful. We once saw the sun describe an almost unbroken circle in +the sky for many days and nights, and had we been a few degrees further +north we should have seen it describe an entire circle. As it was, it +only disappeared for twenty minutes. It set about midnight, and in +twenty minutes it rose again so that there was no night, not even +twilight, but a bright, beautiful blazing day, for several weeks +together. + +Dr Kane describes the midnight sun thus: "On our road we were favoured +with a gorgeous spectacle, which hardly any excitement of peril could +have made us overlook. The midnight sun came out over the northern +crest of the great berg, our late `fast friend,' kindling +variously-coloured fires on every part of its surface, and making the +ice around us one great resplendency of gem-work--blazing carbuncles and +rubies, and molten gold." + +Very different indeed is the aspect of the winter night. Let the same +authority speak, for he had great experience thereof. + +On December 15th he writes: "We have lost the last vestige of our +mid-day twilight. We cannot see print, and hardly paper. The fingers +cannot be counted a foot front the eyes. Noonday and midnight are +alike; and, except a vague glimmer on the sky, that seems to define the +hill-outlines to the south, we have nothing to tell us that this arctic +world of ours has a sun. In one week more we shall reach the midnight +of the year... + +"The influence of this long intense darkness was most depressing. Even +our dogs, although the greater number of them were natives of the arctic +circle, were unable to withstand it. Most of them died from an +anomalous form of disease, to which I am satisfied, the absence of light +contributed as much as extreme cold." Quoting from his journal he says: +"I am so afflicted with the insomnia of this eternal night, that I rise +at any time between midnight and noon. I went on deck this morning at +five o'clock. It was absolutely dark; the cold not permitting a +swinging lamp, there was not a glimmer came to me through the +ice-crusted window-panes of the cabin. While I was feeling my way, half +puzzled as to the best method of steering clear of whatever might be +before me, two of my Newfoundland dogs put their cold noses against my +hand, and instantly commenced the most exuberant antics of satisfaction. +It then occurred to me how very dreary and forlorn must these poor +animals be, at atmospheres 10 degrees above zero in-doors and 50 degrees +below zero without--living in darkness, howling at an accidental light, +as if it reminded them of the moon--and with nothing, either of instinct +or sensation, to tell them of the passing hours, or to explain the long +lost daylight. They shall see the lantern more frequently." + +Yet this state of midnight darkness is not altogether unmitigated. +There are a few ameliorating influences at work, the nature of some of +which we will treat of in the next chapter. Among others, the moon +frequently shines there with great brilliancy in winter. Dr Kane says +that in October the moon had reached her greatest northern declination: +"She is a glorious object. Sweeping around the heavens, at the lowest +part of her curve she is still 14 degrees above the horizon. For eight +days she has been making her circuit with nearly unvarying brightness. +It is one of those sparkling nights that bring back the memory of +sleigh-bells and songs and glad communings of hearts in lands that are +far away." + +But despite all the varied and transient beauties of the northern skies +in winter, the long arctic night is undoubtedly depressing in the +extreme. In these regions men speak of being able to read the +thermometer on the 7th of November at noonday "without a light," as +being matter for gratulation. The darkness still before them at that +time would be of about three months' duration, and even then they would +only get back to a species of twilight. + +The cold experienced by these navigators of the northern seas is +terribly intense. Their thermometers have frequently indicated a +temperature as low as 75 degrees below zero, or 107 degrees of frost, on +Fahrenheit's scale. The thermometers of arctic explorers are always +filled with spirits of wine, as quicksilver freezes at about 40 degrees +below zero, and is therefore unsuitable. It would be frozen, indeed, +the greater part of the winter. + +Dr Kane says: "At such temperatures chloric ether became solid, and +carefully prepared chloroform exhibited a granular pellicle on its +surface. Spirits of naphtha froze at 54 degrees below zero, and oil of +sassafras at 49 degrees. The oil of winter-green was in a flocculent +state at 56 degrees, and solid at 63 degrees. + +"The exhalations from the surface of the body invested the exposed or +partially clad parts with a wreath of vapour. The air had a perceptible +pungency upon inspiration, but I could not perceive the painful +sensation which has been spoken of by some Siberian travellers. When +breathed for any length of time, it imparted a sensation of dryness to +the air-passages. I noticed that, as it were involuntarily, we all +breathed guardedly, with compressed lips." + +Now, strange to say, this extremely low temperature does not affect the +ocean to any great depth. Just below the ice, in cold such as the +above, the sea was found to be 29 degrees _above_ zero. No doubt, +deeper down, the temperature was still warmer. We have heard it said, +that when men chance to fall into the water in cold regions, in the +depth of winter, it feels at first rather warm and agreeable! On +scrambling out again, however, their condition is not enviable; for in a +few minutes the keen frost causes their garments to become as hard as +boards. + +Much light has been thrown on the fact of the existence of under and +upper currents in the sea, by the phenomena of the arctic regions, and +some of the questions to which these currents give rise are so +interesting that we shall treat of them in a new chapter. + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +QUESTION OF AN OPEN SEA ROUND THE POLES--UPPER AND UNDER CURRENTS OF THE +OCEAN--CAUSE THEREOF--HABITS OF THE WHALE AS BEARING ON THE QUESTION-- +DR. KANE'S DISCOVERY OF AN OPEN SEA IN THE FAR NORTH--NOTES ON THE +EXPEDITION--A BEAR-HUNT. + +It was long and very naturally supposed that the impenetrable ice of the +arctic regions extended to, and, as it were, sealed up the pole. But +from time to time philosophic observers of Nature's laws began to hint +their opinion that there is an open ocean around the pole; and of late +years this opinion has all but been converted into a firm belief. + +Maury remarks, that like air--like the body--the ocean _must_ have a +system of circulation for its waters. And an attentive study of the +currents of the sea, and a close examination of the laws which govern +the movements of the waters in their channels of circulation through the +ocean, will lead us irresistibly to the conclusion that always, in +summer and winter, there must be, somewhere within the arctic circle, a +large body of open water. + +There is an under-current setting from the Atlantic, northward through +Davis' Straits, into the Arctic Ocean, and a surface-current setting +out. + +The fact is proved beyond a doubt by the observations of arctic +explorers, who have seen immense icebergs drifting rapidly northward +against a strong current. This apparent anomaly could only be accounted +for by the fact that a powerful undercurrent carried them northward; and +as at least seven times more of these bergs must have been under than +above water, we can easily understand how the under-current, acting on +the larger mass of each berg, had power to carry it against the +surface-current. + +This under-current is _warm_, while the upper-current is _cold_. Now we +know that according to Nature's laws, heated water, like heated air, +rises to the surface, and cold water sinks to the bottom. How, then, +comes this warm current to be underneath the cold, as soundings have +proved it to be? It is owing to the fact that the under-current is much +salter, and therefore heavier (despite its warmth), than the +surface-current; which latter, being mingled with the drainage and +ice-masses of the arctic regions, is comparatively fresh, and therefore +light as well as cold. + +The hot and salt waters of the tropics are carried north by the Gulf +Stream. There are here two counteracting agents at work. Heat inclines +the Gulf Stream to rise; saltness inclines it to sink. During the first +part of its journey, as we know, its great heat prevails over the other +influence, and it flows as a surface-current. But, at a certain point +in its northward route, it meets with the cold, brackish, ice-bearing +currents that flow out of the arctic basin. Having lost much of its +heat (though still possessing a great deal more than the arctic +currents), the saltness of the Gulf Stream prevails; it dips below the +polar waters, and thenceforth continues its course as an under-current, +salt, and comparatively warm. + +To state the matter briefly: The hot water, which _ought_ to keep on the +surface because of its heat, is sunk by its superabundant salt; and the +cold water, which _ought_ to sink because of its cold, is buoyed on the +surface because of its want of salt. + +Now arises the question--what becomes of the great quantity of salt that +is thus being carried perpetually into the polar basin? Manifestly it +must be carried out again by the surface-current, otherwise the polar +basin would of necessity become a basin of salt. The under-current +_must_, therefore, rise to the surface somewhere near the pole, with its +temperature necessarily only a little, if at all, below the +freezing-point--which, be it observed, is a _warm_ temperature for such +regions. Here, then, where the warm waters from the south rise to the +surface, it is supposed this open Arctic Ocean must exist. + +So much for theory. Now for facts that have been observed, and that +tend, more or less, to corroborate this proposition of an open polar +sea. The habits of the whale have gone far to prove it. The log-books +of whalers have for many years been carefully examined and compared by +scientific men. These investigations have led to the discovery "that +the tropical regions of the ocean are to the `right' whale as a sea of +fire, through which he cannot pass, and into which he never enters." It +has also been ascertained that the same kind of whale which is found off +the shores of Greenland, in Baffin's Bay, etcetera, is found in the +North Pacific, and about Behring's Straits; and that the `right' whale +of the southern hemisphere is a different animal from that of the +northern. How, then, came the Greenland whales to pass from the +Greenland seas to the Pacific? Not by the Capes Horn or Good Hope; the +"sea of fire" precluded that. Clearly there was ground here for +concluding that they did so through the (supposed) open sea lying +beyond, or rather within, the frozen ocean. + +It is true the objection might be made, that the same kind of whale +which exists in the North Pacific exists also in the North Atlantic, +although they never cross over to see each other. But another discovery +has met this objection. + +It is the custom among whalers to have their harpoons marked with date +and name of ship, and Dr Scoresby, in his work on arctic voyages +mentions several instances of whales having been taken near Behring's +Straits, with harpoons in them bearing the stamp of ships that were +known to cruise in the Greenland seas; and the dates on the harpoons +were so recent as to preclude the supposition that the said whales had, +after being struck, made a voyage round the capes above mentioned,--even +were such a voyage possible to them. All this does not, indeed, +absolutely prove the existence of an open arctic sea, but it does, we +think, prove the existence of at least an _occasionally_ open sea there, +for it is well known that whales cannot travel such immense distances +under ice. + +But the most conclusive evidence that we have in regard to this subject +is the fact, that one of the members of Dr Kane's expedition, while in +search of Sir John Franklin, did actually, on foot, reach what we have +every reason to believe was this open sea; but not being able to get +their ship into it, the party had no means of exploring it, or extending +their investigations. The account of this discovery is so interesting, +and withal so romantic, that we extract a few paragraphs relating to it +from Kane's work. + +After spending the dreary winter in the ice-locked and unexplored +channels beyond the head of Baffin's Bay, Kane found his little ship +still hopelessly beset in the month of June; he therefore resolved to +send out a sledge-party under Morton, one of his best men, to explore +the channel to the north of their position. After twelve days' +travelling they came to the base of the "Great Glacier," where Morton +left his party, and, in company with an Esquimaux named Hans, set out +with a dog-sledge to prosecute the journey of exploration. + +They walked on the sea-ice in a line parallel with the glacier, and +proceeded twenty-eight miles that day, although the snow was knee-deep +and soft. At the place where they encamped a crack enabled them to +measure the ice. It was seven feet five inches thick! And this in +June. We may mention here, in passing, that Dr Kane never got his +vessel out of that frozen strait, which seems to be bound by perpetual +ice. He and his party escaped with their lives; but the vessel that +bore them thither is probably still embedded in that ice. + +Next day Morton and Hans came to a region of icebergs, which had +arrested a previous sledging-party of the same expedition. "These +[icebergs] were generally very high, evidently newly separated from the +glacier. Their surfaces were fresh and glassy, and not like those +generally met with in Baffin's Bay,--less worn, and bluer, and looking +in all respects like the face of the Great Glacier. Many were +rectangular, some of them regular squares, a quarter of a mile each way; +others more than a mile long." + +To pass amidst these bergs was a matter of labour, difficulty, and +danger. Sometimes the sides of them came so close together, that the +men could scarcely squeeze between them, and they were obliged to search +for other passages; in doing which, the variation of their compass +confused them. At other times, "a tolerably wide passage would appear +between two bergs, which they would gladly follow; then a narrower one; +then no opening in front, but one to the side. Following that a little +distance, a blank ice-cliff would close the way altogether, and they +were forced to retrace their steps and begin again." + +Thus they puzzled their way through, "like a blind man in the streets of +a strange city;" but more difficulties awaited them beyond. After +advancing many miles they were arrested by broad rents in the ice, and +were obliged to diverge frequently far out of their course, or to bridge +the chasms over by cutting down the ice hummocks and filling them up +with loose ice, until the dogs were able to haul the provision-sledge +over. + +Advancing thus for several days, and encamping on the snow at night, +they at last came to a spot where the ice was dangerous. "It was weak +and rotten, and the dogs began to tremble." Proceeding at a brisk rate, +they had got upon unsafe ice before they were aware of it. Their course +was at the time nearly up the middle of the channel; but as soon as +possible they turned, and by a backward circuit reached the shore. The +dogs, as their fashion is, at first lay down and refused to proceed, +trembling violently. The only way to induce the terrified, obstinate +brutes to get on, was for Hans to go to a white-looking spot, where the +ice was thicker, the soft stuff looking dark; then calling the dogs +coaxingly by name, they would crawl to him on their bellies. So they +retreated from place to place, until they reached the firm ice they had +quitted. A half mile brought them to comparatively safe ice, a mile +more to good ice again. + +In the midst of this danger they had, during the liftings of the fog, +sighted open water. Soon after they saw it plainly. So many long and +dreary months had these men passed since they were gladdened by the +sight of open water, that they could scarcely believe their eyes; and +Morton declared, that but for the birds which were seen flying about it +in great numbers, he would not have believed it. + +They made for the land-ice as fast as possible, and quickly gained it; +but the sea-ice had cracked off and sunk so much, that the land-ice +presented a wall along the whole coast of about eight or nine feet high. +It was quite perpendicular, in some places overhanging, so that it was +a matter of the greatest difficulty they managed to throw up the +provisions, clamber up themselves, and haul the dogs and sledge up +afterwards. This accomplished, however, they were safe, and could +advance with confidence. But this mass of land-ice became narrower as +they proceeded, till at last it dwindled to a mere narrow ledge, +clinging to the high, perpendicular cliffs, and looking as if at any +moment it might crumble off and fall with them into the open water +between it and the floating sea-ice. + +The sea here was very deep and clear. They could see the bottom quite +plainly, although a stone they cast in, the size of a man's head, took +twenty-eight seconds to reach it. + +Being now afraid of the ice-ledge, they attempted to find a path along +the face of the cliff; but failing in this, Morton determined to leave +part of the provisions in "_cache_," and proceed with a lighter load. +The cape round which they were travelling, and on the other side of +which lay the open water, was extremely bold, and the ice-ledge at the +end of it was barely three feet wide; so they were obliged to unloose +the dogs, and drive them forward alone, then tilted the sledge on one +runner, and thus pushed it past the worst place. + +Here the ice on the sea was partly broken up, and a strong tide was +running from the southward. The night before it had been running from +the north. As they advanced, the channel became still more open, and +after passing the cape they saw nothing but open water, with innumerable +wild sea-birds of every description flying overhead, or disporting in +the pools. Let it by observed here, however, that this was the open +water of a strait or channel,--not the great Arctic Sea, about the +probable existence of which we have been writing. Upon the ice-masses +near them numerous seals were seen basking. + +One thing that struck them much here was, that although strong north +winds, amounting to a gale at times, had been blowing for several days, +no ice had been brought down from the north into the channel, along the +shore of which they travelled. Thick, damp fogs prevailed, preventing +them from seeing far in advance at any time. + +At last they came to a place where the broken ice of the shore rendered +passage for the sledge impossible. They therefore tied the dogs, +intending to push forward a short way alone. But they had not been +sufficiently careful to secure them; for the poor animals, supposing +themselves deserted, no doubt, succeeded in breaking their lines, and +rejoined the two men in about an hour after. This, as it turned out, +was rather a fortunate circumstance. + +Preparatory to quitting their sledge, the men had loaded themselves with +eight pounds of pemmican and two of biscuit, besides the artificial +horizon, sextant, and compass, a rifle, and a boathook. They had not +been an hour gone when, as above stated, four of the dogs overtook them. +An hour afterwards they came upon a polar bear with her cub. + +The fight that followed, although somewhat foreign to our subject, is so +graphically described by Dr Kane, that we think it quite unnecessary to +apologise for inserting it here. + +"The bear instantly took to flight; but the little one being unable to +keep pace with her, she turned back, and, putting her head under its +haunches, threw it some distance. The cub safe for the moment, she +would then wheel round and face the dogs, so as to give it a chance to +run away; but it always stopped, just as it alighted, till she came up +and threw it ahead again; it seemed to expect her aid, and would not go +on without it. Sometimes the mother would run a few yards ahead, as if +to coax the young one up to her, and when the dogs came up she would +turn and drive them back then, as they dodged her blows, she would +rejoin the cub and push on, sometimes putting her head under it, +sometimes catching it in her mouth by the nape of the neck. + +"For a time she managed her retreat with great celerity, leaving the two +men far in the rear. They had engaged her on the land-ice; but she led +the dogs in-shore, up a small stony valley which opened into the +interior. After she had gone a mile and a half, her pace slackened, +and, the little one being jaded, she soon came to a halt. + +"The men were then only half a mile behind, and running at full speed. +They soon came up to where the dogs were holding her at bay. The fight +was now a desperate one. The mother never went more than two yards +ahead, constantly looking at the cub. When the dogs came near her, she +would sit upon her haunches, and take the little one between her +hind-legs, fighting the dogs with her paws, and roaring so that she +could have been heard a mile off. Never was an animal more distressed. +She would stretch her neck and snap at the nearest dog with her shining +teeth, whirling her paws like the arms of a windmill. If she missed her +aim, not daring to pursue one dog lest the others should harm the cub, +she would give a great roar of baffled rage, and go on pawing and +snapping, and facing the ring, grinning at them with her mouth stretched +wide. + +"When the men came up the little one was perhaps rested, for it was able +to turn round with its dam, no matter how quick she moved, so as to keep +always in front of her belly. The five dogs were all the time frisking +about her actively, tormenting her like so many gad-flies. Indeed they +made it difficult to take an aim at her without killing them. But Hans, +lying on his elbow, took a quiet aim, and shot her through the head. +She dropped and rolled over dead, without moving a muscle. + +"The dogs sprang towards her at once; but the cub jumped upon her body +and reared up, for the first time growling hoarsely. They seemed quite +afraid of the little creature, she fought so actively, and made so much +noise; and, while tearing mouthfuls of hair from the dead mother, they +would spring aside the minute the cub turned towards them. The men +drove the dogs off for a time, but were obliged to shoot the cub at +last, as she would not quit the body. + +"Hans fired into her head. It did not reach the brain, though it +knocked her down; but she was still able to climb on her mother's body, +and try to defend it, her mouth bleeding like a gutter-spout. They were +obliged to despatch her with stones." + +After skinning the old one they gashed its body, and the dogs fed upon +it ravenously. The little one they _cached_ for themselves against +their return. + +This little fight quite knocked up Hans the Esquimaux; Morton therefore +advanced alone, in the hope of being able to get beyond a huge cape that +lay before him. On reaching it, the grand sight of an _apparently +boundless ocean of open water_ met his eye. Only "four or five small +pieces" of ice were seen on the glancing waves of this hitherto unknown +sea. "Viewed from the cliffs," writes Dr Kane, "and taking thirty-six +miles as the mean radius open to reliable survey, this sea had a +justly-estimated extent of more than 4000 square miles." + +Here, then, in all probability, is the great Arctic Ocean that has been +supposed to exist in a perpetually fluid state round the pole, encircled +by a ring of ice that has hitherto presented an impenetrable barrier to +all the adventurers of ancient and modern times. There were several +facts connected with this discovery that go far to prove that this ocean +is perpetually open. + +Further south, where Dr Kane's brig lay in ice that seemed never to +melt, there were few signs of animal life--only a seal or two now and +then; but here, on the margin of this far northern sea, were myriads of +water-fowl of various kinds. + +"The Brent goose," writes the Doctor, "had not been seen before since +entering Smith's Strait. It is well known to the polar traveller as a +migratory bird of the American continent. Like the others of the same +family, it feeds upon vegetable matter, generally on marine plants, with +their adherent molluscan life. It is rarely or never seen in the +interior; and from its habits may be regarded as singularly indicative +of open water. The flocks of this bird, easily distinguished by their +wedge-shaped line of flight, now crossed the water obliquely, and +disappeared over the land to the north-east. + +"The rocks on shore were crowded with sea-swallows, birds whose habits +require open water; and they were already breeding. The gulls were +represented by no less than four species. The kittiwakes--reminding +Morton of `old times in Baffin's Bay'--were again stealing fish from the +water (probably the small whiting), and their grim cousins, the +burgomasters, enjoying the dinner thus provided at so little cost to +themselves. It was a picture of life all round. + +"Here, for the first time, Morton noticed the arctic petrel,--a fact +which shows the accuracy of his observation, though he had not been +aware of its importance. This bird had not been met with since we left +the north water of the English whalers, more than two hundred miles +south of the position on which he stood. Its food is essentially +marine; and it is seldom seen in numbers, except in the highways of open +water frequented by the whale and the larger representatives of ocean +life. They were in numbers flitting and hovering over the crests of the +waves, like their relatives of kinder climates,--the Cape of Good Hope +pigeons, Mother Carey's chickens, and the petrels everywhere else. + +"It must have been an imposing sight, as Morton stood at this +termination of his journey, looking out upon the great waste of waters +before him. Not a speck of ice could be seen. There, from a height of +480 feet, which commanded a horizon of almost forty miles, his ears were +gladdened with the novel music of dashing waves; and a surf, breaking in +among the rocks at his feet, stayed his further progress." + +Strong presumptive evidence, all this, that there is an ocean of open +water round the pole, and a milder climate there than exists nearer to +the arctic circle. Had the short barrier of ice that intervened between +the brig and that mysterious sea been removed, as, perchance, it is +sometimes removed by a hot summer, Dr Kane might have been the first to +reach the North Pole. This, however, is reserved for some other +navigator. The gallant Kane now lies in an early grave but some of his +enterprising comrades have returned to those regions, bent on solving +this problem; and it is possible that, even while we now write, their +adventurous keel may be ploughing the waters of the hitherto untraversed +and mysterious polar sea. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA OF THE POLAR SEAS AND REGIONS--THE AURORA +BOREALIS--ICE-BLINK--OPTICAL ILLUSIONS--ANECDOTE OF SCORESBY--HALOES-- +CORONAE--MOCK SUNS--REFRACTION--FROSTS. + +Owing to the intensity of the cold in the arctic regions, there are, as +we may readily believe, many singular appearances connected with the +ocean and the atmosphere, which are worthy of special notice. + +Chief, perhaps, among the phenomena of those regions is the _Aurora +Borealis_. + +Ever mindful of the welfare of the creatures whom he has formed, the +Almighty has appointed a light to mitigate the darkness of the polar +regions when the sun, in its appointed course, withdraws for a season. + +What the aurora borealis is no one knows, although many have hazarded +opinions regarding it. + +What it is like is known even to ourselves, though the faint indications +of it which sometimes seen in our own heavens are not to be compared to +the brilliancy of the spectacle that is occasionally presented in the +northern skies. + +The most ordinary aspect of the aurora is that of a band of pale-green +light extending irregularly over part of the sky, and marked by wavy +motions, as well as by varying brightness. Sometimes one part of this +band becomes more bright than another part. Sometimes the whole seems +to move gently, like the undulations of a flag in a light breeze; at +other times more vigorous action takes place, and pointed tongues of +light shoot vividly up into the zenith. This sometimes takes place so +frequently, and the tongues are so long and numerous, that the aurora +has been popularly termed the "northern streamers." + +Although pale-green is the most frequent colour, the aurora borealis has +often been observed with blue and red hues; and the sky has been seen +suffused with an intense crimson colour by it. + +Captains Parry and Lyon saw these northern lights in full splendour +during their residence in the arctic regions. They tell us that "the +aurora had a tendency to form an irregular arch, which, in calm weather, +was very often distinct, though its upper boundary was seldom well +defined; but whenever the air was agitated, showers of rays spread in +every direction with the rapidity of lightning, but always appearing to +move to and from a fixed point, somewhat like a ribbon held in the hand +and shaken with an undulatory motion. No rule, however, could be traced +in the movement of those lighter parcels called the `merry dancers,' +which flew about perpetually towards every quarter; becoming in stormy +weather more rapid in their motions, and sharing all the wildness of the +blast. They gave an indescribable air of magic to the whole scene, and +made it not wonderful that, by the untaught Indian, they should be +viewed as `the spirits of his fathers roaming through the land of +souls.'" + +We are told by some that the aurora borealis is accompanied by a loud +hissing and crackling sound and Captain Lyon says that the sudden glare +and rapid bursts of those wondrous showers of fire make it difficult to +believe that their movements are wholly without sound. Yet such would +seem to be the case, for the same authority tells us that he stood on +the ice for hours listening intently and could hear nothing. He was +thoroughly convinced that no sound proceeds from the aurora, and most +intelligent voyagers support him in this opinion. + +That the aurora dims the lustre of the stars seen through it, is a fact +which was ascertained clearly by the same gentleman; and that it moves +in a region beyond the clouds is also evident from the fact that when +the latter covered the sky the aurora disappeared. + +But some of the most singular appearances of the sea and sky in the +polar regions are presented in summer. During that season the perpetual +presence of the sun and the large tracts of ice floating about on the +sea exert their opposing influences so as to produce the most +astonishing results. + +One part of the sea being covered with ice, produces a cold atmosphere; +another part being free from ice, produces a warmer atmosphere. +Refraction is the result of viewing objects through those different +media, and very curious appearances follow. When Scoresby was in +Greenland a singular atmospheric phenomenon occurred, whereby he became +aware of the approach of his father's ship some time before it rose +above the horizon. He had reached Greenland before his father, who +followed him in the _Fame_. The following is his account of the +circumstance: + +"On my return to the ship, about eleven o'clock, the night was +beautifully fine and the air quite mild. The atmosphere, in consequence +of the warmth, being in a highly refractive state, a great many curious +appearances were presented by the land and icebergs. The most +extraordinary effect of this state of the atmosphere, however, was the +distinct inverted image of a ship in the clear sky, over the middle of +the large bay or inlet, the ship itself being entirely beyond the +horizon. Appearances of this kind I have before noticed, but the +peculiarities of this were the perfection of the image, and the great +distance of the vessel that it represented. It was so extremely well +defined, that, when examined with a telescope, I could distinguish every +sail, the general `rig of the ship,' and its peculiar character; +insomuch that I confidently pronounced it to be my father's ship the +_Fame_, which it afterwards proved to be, though, on comparing notes +with my father, I found that our relative positions at the time gave our +distance from one another very nearly thirty miles, being about +seventeen miles beyond the horizon, and some leagues beyond the line of +direct vision." + +Scoresby was, perhaps, one of the most persevering and intelligent +observers of nature that ever went to the polar seas. His various +accounts of what he saw are most interesting. We cannot do better than +quote his remarks upon _ice-blink_, that curious appearance of white +light on the horizon, whereby voyagers are led to infer the presence of +ice:-- + +"This appearance of the _ice-blink_," says he, "occurred on the 13th of +June 1820, in latitude 76 degrees north. The sky aloft was covered with +dense, uniform, hazy cloud, which indeed occupied the whole of the +heavens, excepting a portion near the horizon, where it seemed to be +repelled. The upper white blink referred to ice about six miles +distant, being beyond the horizon; the narrow yellowish portions +referred to floes and compact ice; the lowest yellow blink, which in +brightness and colour resembled the moon, was the reflection of a field +at the distance of thirty miles, to which, directed by the blink, we +made way in the _Baffin_, through the channels of water represented in +the sky by bluish-grey streaks. The field we found to be a sheet of ice +150 miles in circumference!" + +Another very singular appearance observed occasionally in foggy weather +is a series of bright circles, or coronae, surrounding the heads or +persons of individuals in certain positions. We have, while standing at +the mast-head of a vessel in Hudson's Straits, observed our own shadow +thrown on the sea with a bright halo round it. The day was bright and +hazy at the time. Referring to a particular case of this kind, Scoresby +says: + +"During the month of July 1820, the weather being often foggy, with a +bright sun sometimes shining at the height of the day, some +extraordinary coronae were observed from the mast-head. These occurred +opposite to the sun, the centre of all the circles being in a line drawn +from the sun through the eye of the observer. On one occasion four +coloured luminous circles were observed. The exterior one might be +twenty degrees in diameter. It exhibited all the colours of the +spectrum. The next, a little within it, was of a whitish-grey colour; +the third was only four or five degrees in diameter, and though it +exhibited the colours of the spectrum, these colours were not very +brilliant. The fourth was extremely beautiful and brilliant. The +interior colour was yellow, then orange, red, violet, etcetera. The +colours of the whole three coronae were, I think, in the same order, but +of this I am not very certain. Indeed, on reflection, I suspect that +the second circle must have been in the reverse order of the first; the +first and the fourth being the same. The third was not coloured. In +the midst of these beautiful coronae I observed my own shadow, the head +surrounded by a glory. All the coronae were evidently produced by the +fog; my shadow was impressed on the surface of the sea." + +The cause of these phenomena is "the reflection of the sun's rays, +decomposed by different refractions in minute globules of water, of +which the mist, wherein the coronae occur, in a great measure appears to +consist." + +Mock suns, or _parhelia_, are common appearances in northern skies. +Sometimes two of these mock suns are seen, one on each side of their +great original, glowing so brightly that either of them, if we could +suppose it to have shone in the sky alone, would have made a very +respectable sun indeed! Even four of these "sun-dogs"--as they are some +times called--have been seen surrounding the sun; one on each side of +it, one directly above, and one immediately below, with a ring of light +connecting them together, a streak of light passing horizontally and +another passing perpendicularly between them, thus forming a luminous +cross, in the centre of which was the sun itself. This magnificent +spectacle is sometimes enhanced by a second circle of light enclosing +the whole, and the edges of several outer circles springing in faint +light therefrom until gradually lost, leaving the imagination to call up +the idea of an endless series of glories extending over the whole sky. + +Refraction frequently causes grotesque as well as wonderful and +beautiful appearances. Ships are sometimes seen with their hulls +flattened and their masts and sails drawn out to monstrous dimensions; +or the hulls are heightened so as to appear like heavy castle walls, +while the masts and sails are rendered ludicrously squat and +disproportioned; and not only so, but ships are often seen with their +images inverted over their own masts, so that to the observer it appears +as if one ship were balancing another upside down--mast-head to +mast-head. Land and icebergs assume the same curious appearances--peaks +touching peaks, one set pointing upwards, the other set pointing down, +while the broad bases are elevated in the air. At other times the whole +mass of land and ice on the horizon is more or less broken up and +scattered about as if in confusion, yet with a certain amount of +regularity in the midst of it all, arising from the fact of every object +being presented in duplicate, sometimes triplicate, and occasionally, +though seldom, four-fold. + +When sharp sudden frosts occur in those regions, the splendour of the +scenery is still further enhanced by the formation of innumerable minute +crystals which sparkle literally with as much lustrous beauty as the +diamond. On one occasion Scoresby's ship was decorated with uncommon +magnificence, and in a peculiarly interesting manner. + +"In the course of the night," he writes, "the rigging of the ship was +most splendidly decorated with a fringe of delicate crystals. The +general form of these was that of a feather having half of the vane +removed. Near the surface of the ropes was first a small direct line of +very white particles, constituting the stem or shaft of the feather; and +from each of these fibres, in another plane, proceeded a short delicate +range of spiculae or rays, discoverable only by the help of a +microscope, with which the elegant texture and systematic construction +of the feather were completed. Many of these crystals, possessing a +perfect arrangement of the different parts corresponding with the shaft, +vane, and rachis of a feather, were upwards of an inch in length, and +three-fourths of an inch in breadth. Some consisted of a single flake +or feather, but many of them gave rise to other feathers, which sprang +from the surface of the vane at the usual angle. There seemed to be no +limit to the magnitude of these feathers, so long as the producing cause +continued to operate, until their weight because so great, or the action +of the wind so forcible, that they were broken off and fell in flakes to +the deck of the ship." + +It is impossible for the mind to conceive the effect of such a galaxy of +curious, and bright, and eminently beautiful combinations as are +sometimes displayed in the arctic regions. None of the fabulous +conceptions of man, even though profoundly elaborated and brightly +gilded with the coruscations of the most sparkling genius and fancy, +ever produced so gorgeous a spectacle as may be witnessed there every +summer day. Four or five suns in the blue sky, with lines and circles +of light shooting from or circling round them! Ice in all its quaint, +majestic, and shining forms, rendered still more quaint and grand by the +influence of refraction; and, by the same power, ships sailing in the +sky, sometimes, as if Nature's laws were abrogated, with their keels +upwards, and their masts pointing to the sea! Walls of pure ice +hundreds of feet high, many miles in extent, clear as crystal, and +sending back the rays of heaven's luminaries in broad blazing beams; +while the icebergs' pinnacles reflect them in sparkling points! White +luminous fogs, like curtains of gauze, too thin to dim the general +brightness, yet dense enough to invest the whole scene with a silver +robe of mystery, and to refract the light and compel it to shine in +great circles of prismatic colours! And everything--from the nature of +the materials of which the gay scenery is composed--either white or +blue, varying in all gradations from the fairest snow to the deepest +azure, save where the rainbow's delicate hues are allowed to intermingle +enough of pink, yellow, purple, orange, and green to relieve the eye and +enable it more fully to appreciate the virgin drapery of the scene. All +this, seen in detail--seen frequently in rapid succession--sometimes +seen almost all at one moment,--all this is absolutely beyond +conception, and utterly beyond adequate description. Yet all this is +seen at times in those realms of ice and snow, which are, as we have +already said, too much represented as the "gloomy, forbidding, +inhospitable polar regions." + +There are two sides to every picture. We take leave of this particular +branch of our sun with the remark, that if the shady side of the far +north is dreadfully dark and dreary, its bright side is intensely +brilliant and beautiful. + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +ANIMAL LIFE IN THE SEA--MEDUSAE--FOOD OF THE WHALE--PHOSPHORIC LIGHT-- +CAUSE THEREOF--LUMINOSITY OF THE OCEAN. + +Reference has elsewhere been made in this volume to the immense amount +of animal life that exists in the ocean, not only in the form of fish of +all sizes, but in that of animalcules, which, although scarcely visible +to the naked eye, are, in some cases, so innumerable as to give a +distinct colouring to the water. + +The _Medusae_, or, more familiarly, sea blubbers, are seen in the waters +that lave our own shores. They are of various sizes, from that of a +large plate to a pin-head. They are almost colourless, like clear +jelly, and when carelessly observed, seem to be dead objects drifting +with the tide; but a closer observation shows that they are possessed of +life, though not of a particularly active kind, and that they swim by +alternate contractions and expansions of their bodies. These creatures +constitute a large part of the whale's food. Some of them are flat, +some semi-globular, others are bell-shaped, while some have got little +heads and small fins. Of these last it is said that each little +creature has no fewer than three hundred and sixty thousand minute +suckers on its head with which it seizes its prey. When we think of the +exceeding smallness of the creatures thus preyed upon, and consider the +fact that each little thing must obtain food by making war upon some +creatures still smaller than itself, we are led almost in spite of +ourselves into that mysteriously metaphysical question--infinitesimal +_divisibility_; which may be translated thus--the endless division and +subdivision of atoms. This subject has puzzled the heads of the +profoundest philosophers of all ages; we will not, therefore, puzzle our +readers with it any further. + +Scoresby tells us that the colour of the Greenland Sea varies from +ultramarine blue to olive-green, from the purest transparency to +striking opacity; and that these colours are permanent, and do not +depend on the state of the weather, but on the quality of the water. He +observed that whales were found in much greater numbers in the green +than in the blue water; and he found, on examining the former with the +microscope, that its opacity and its colour were due to countless +multitudes of those animalcules on which the whale feeds. + +We need scarcely remark that it is utterly beyond the power of man to +form anything approaching to a correct conception of the amount of +_life_ that is thus shown to exist in the ocean. Although it has +pleased the Creator to limit our powers, yet it has also pleased him to +leave the limit of those powers undefined. We may not, indeed, ever +hope in this life to attain to perfect knowledge, nevertheless, by +"searching" we may "find out wisdom;" and certain it is, that, although +there undoubtedly must be a point of knowledge on any given subject +which man cannot reach, there is in man a power incessantly to extend +his knowledge and increase his powers of conception, by each successive +effort that he makes in his course from the cradle to the grave. + +Even although we were told the exact number of the little creatures that +inhabit the sea, we could not, by any simple effort of the mind, however +powerful, form a conception of what that number implied. We might shut +ourselves up like the hermits of old, abstract our thoughts from all +other things, and ponder the subject for weeks or months together, and +at the termination of our effort we should be as wise as we were at its +commencement, but no wiser. But by searching round the subject, and +comparing lesser things with greater, although we should still fail to +arrive at a full comprehension of the truth, we may advance our powers +of conception very considerably beyond the point attained by our first +effort; and which point, as we have said, could not be surmounted by a +hair's breadth by the mere exertion of simple or abstract thought. + +Dr Scoresby's remarks on the subject of animal life in the ocean, are +so graphic and curious that we extract the passages verbatim from the +admirable memoir of that gentleman, written by his nephew. He says: + +"I procured a quantity of snow from a piece of ice that had been washed +by the sea, and was greatly discoloured by the decomposition of some +peculiar substance upon it. A little of this snow dissolved in a +wine-glass appeared perfectly nebulous--the water being found to contain +a great number of semi-transparent spherical substances, with others +resembling small portions of fine hair. On examining these substances +with a compound microscope, I was enabled to make the following +observations:-- + +"The semi-transparent globules appeared to consist of an animal of the +medusa kind. It was from one-twentieth to one-thirtieth of an inch in +diameter. Its surface was marked with twelve distinct patches, or +nebulae, of dots of a brownish colour. These dots were disposed in +pairs, four pairs or sixteen pairs alternately, composing one of the +nebula. The body of the medusa was transparent. When the water +containing these animals was heated, it emitted a very strong odour, in +some respects resembling the smell of oysters when thrown on hot coals, +but much more offensive. + +"The fibrous or hair-like substances were more easily examined, being of +a darker colour. They varied in length from a point to one-tenth of an +inch; and when highly magnified, were found beautifully moniliform. +Whether they were living animals, and possessed of locomotion, I could +not ascertain. They possessed the property of decomposing light, and in +some cases showed all the colours of the spectrum very distinctly. + +"I afterwards examined the different qualities of sea water, and found +these substances very abundant in that of an olive-green colour; and +also occurring, but in lesser quantity, in the bluish-green water. The +number of medusae in the olive-green water was found to be immense. +They were about one-fourth of an inch asunder. In this proportion, a +cubic inch of water must contain 64; a cubic foot 110,592; a cubic +fathom 23,887,872; and a cubic mile about 23,888,000,000,000,000." + +Of course we have, in the last two numbers, reached the utterly +incomprehensible; but Dr Scoresby goes into comparisons which help us a +little, at least to ascertain how hopelessly beyond our conceptions such +numbers are. + +"From soundings made in the situation where these animals were found, it +is probable the sea is upwards of a mile in depth; but whether these +substances occupy the whole depth is uncertain. Provided, however, the +depth to which they extend be but two hundred and fifty fathoms, the +above immense number of one species may occur in the space of two miles +square. It may give a better conception of the amount of medusae in +this extent, if we calculate the length of time that would be requisite, +with a certain number of persons, for counting this number. Allowing +that one person could count a million in seven days, which is barely +possible, it would have required that eighty thousand persons should +have started at the creation of the world to complete the enumeration at +the present time! + +"What a stupendous idea this gives of the immensity of creation, and of +the bounty of Divine Providence in furnishing such a profusion of life +in a region so remote from the habitations of men! + +"The larger portion of these medusae, consisting of transparent +substances of a lemon-yellow colour, and globular form, appeared to +possess very little power of motion. Some of them were seen advancing +by a slight waving motion, at the rate of a hundred and eightieth of an +inch in a second; and others, spinning round with considerable celerity, +gave great interest and liveliness to the examination. But the +progressive motion of the most active, however distinct and rapid it +might appear under a high magnifying power, was, in reality, extremely +slow; for it did not exceed an inch in three minutes. At this rate they +would require one hundred and fifty-one days to travel a nautical mile. + +"The vastness of their numbers, and their exceeding minuteness, are +circumstances, discovered in the examination of these animalcules, of +uncommon interest. In a drop of water examined by a power of 28.224 +(magnified superficies) there were fifty in number, on an average, in +each square of the micrometer glass, of an eight hundred and fortieth of +an inch; and as the drop occupied a circle on a plate of glass +containing 529 of these squares, there must have been, in this single +drop of water, taken out of the yellowish-green sea, in a place by no +means the most discoloured, about 26,450 animalcules. Hence, reckoning +sixty drops to a dram, there would be a number in a gallon of water +exceeding, by one half the amount of the population of the whole globe! +It gives a powerful conception of the minuteness and wonders of +creation, when we think of more than twenty-six thousand animals living, +obtaining subsistence, and moving perfectly at their ease, without +annoyance to one another, in a single drop of water... A whale requires +a sea, an ocean, to sport in. About one hundred and fifty millions of +these animalcules would have abundant room in a tumbler of water!" + +But besides furnishing food to the whale, and, no doubt, to many other +of the inhabitants of the deep, those medusae are the cause of the +phosphorescent light that sometimes glows on the ocean with resplendent +brilliancy. We see this light oftentimes on our own coasts. It is +usually of a pale bluish-white colour, more or less intense, apparently, +according to the condition of the creatures by which it is emitted. It +can only be seen at night. We have seen it on the west coast of +Scotland, so bright that the steamer in which we sailed left behind her +what appeared to be a broad highway of liquid fire. + +At times it requires vigorous motion, such as takes place when an oar is +dipped, a stone thrown, or paddle-wheels dashed into the water; but at +other times, the mere motion of the ocean swell, even in calm weather, +is sufficient to stir up the lambent light and cause the crest of every +undulation to glitter as if tipped with burnished silver. In such +circumstances we have seen the ends of the oars of a boat silvered with +it when lifted out of the wave, and the drops which fell from them +before being redipped resembled the most beautiful diamonds. + +Mr P.H. Gosse, in his interesting work, "The Ocean," gives the +following account of this luminosity of the sea, as witnessed by himself +on one occasion: + +"In a voyage to the Gulf of Mexico, I saw the water in those seas more +splendidly luminous than I had ever observed before. It was indeed a +magnificent sight, to stand on the fore-part of the vessel and watch her +breasting the waves. The mass of water rolled from her bows as white as +milk, studded with those innumerable sparkles of blue light. The +nebulosity instantly separated into small masses, curdled like clouds of +marbles, leaving the water between of its own clear blackness; the +clouds soon subsided, but the sparks remained. Sometimes one of these +points, of greater size and brilliancy than the rest, suddenly burst +into a small cloud of superior whiteness to the mass, and be then lost +in it. The curdling of the milky appearance into clouds and masses, and +its quick subsidence, were what I had never before observed elsewhere." + +Many scientific travellers have carefully examined this subject, and we +believe that all agree in referring this beautiful appearance to the +medusae. One gentleman drew a bucketful of water from the sea when it +was in this condition, and found, on examining it in a dark place, that +the little creatures "could be distinctly seen emitting a bright speck +of light. Sometimes this was like a sudden flash, at others appearing +like an oblong or round luminous point, which continued bright for a +short time, like a lamp lit beneath the water and moving through it, +still possessing its definite shape, and then suddenly disappearing. +When the bucket was sharply struck on the outside, there would appear at +once a great number of these luminous bodies, which retained their +brilliant appearance for a few seconds, and then all was dark again. +They evidently appeared to have it under their own will, giving out +their light frequently, at various depths in the water, without any +agitation being given to the bucket. At times might be seen minute but +pretty bright specks of light, darting across a piece of water and then +vanishing; the motion of the light being exactly that of the cyclops +through the water. Upon removing a tumblerful from the bucket, and +taking it to the light, a number of cyclops were accordingly found +swimming and darting about in it." + +We have given the above quotation at full length, because it proves, in +an interesting manner, the fact that phosphorescence, or luminosity, of +the sea is actually produced by multitudes of living creatures. We +cannot pass from it, however, without expressing our difference of +opinion in regard to the power of the medusae to emit their light "at +will." + +It seems much more probable that the light is the result of passion and +action. When a man's feelings are strongly roused, whether pleasurably +or otherwise, he usually starts into action under a sudden impulse, +which sends the blood violently through his veins, causing his face to +become flushed and _red_. This reddening is not the result of will. It +is the unavoidable result of passionate impulse, and could not possibly +be produced by an effort of the will. + +It is well known that electric fluid permeates the bodies of all +animals, more or less; and it is quite conceivable that under the +influence of nervous impulse one creature should become luminous, while +another only becomes red. Man leaps and sings for joy; and the result +is, that the actions cause his countenance to glow with _colour_. The +marine animalcule, experiencing a sudden influx of delight, darts hither +and thither under the strong impulse of its exuberant glee; and the +result is, that its little body gleams with _light_. Vigorous action is +the direct cause of the emission of light in the one case, just as +vigorous action is the direct cause of the suffusion of the countenance +in the other. But in both cases the primary cause is passion--at least +so it seems to us. + +No doubt fear as well as joy may create vigorous action, and produce the +same result; but as we know that, as a general rule, there is much more +of joy than of fear dwelling at all times in the hearts of God's +creatures, we can well believe that the amount of luminosity produced in +the sea by the latter passion is immeasurably smaller than that produced +by the former. We are thus, therefore, set free to indulge in the +pleasing reflection that when we behold that magnificent gleaming of the +sea, which almost resembles liquid silver reflecting the stars of +heaven, we are witnessing the frolicsome and joyous gambols of those +myriads of little beings to whom the beneficent Creator has assigned the +ocean as their dwelling-place. + +The theory which we have ventured to propound in regard to vigorous +impulse (whether of joy or fear) being the cause of eliciting +luminosity, is supported in some degree by the remark in our last +quotation, that when the bucket was sharply struck, there appeared at +once a number of luminous bodies, which shone for a few seconds, and +then disappeared. Undoubtedly the poor little things got a fright when +their residence was sharply assailed in such an unusual manner; their +energies were roused, and their light emitted. Then, as they gradually +calmed down, their light disappeared. + +We are further told that when a drop of sulphuric acid was put into a +tumbler of water, "several bright flashes were seen." This, we venture +to think, was somewhat similar to the putting of a few drops of brandy +and water into the human stomach; the usual result of which is, as we +all know, to produce several bright flashes of wit, if not of light, or +of something at least meant to be remarkably luminous! + +But this luminosity is not entirely confined to the minute creatures of +the sea. Some fish have the power of emitting light. Some species of +the shark emit a greenish light; and the sun-fish is said, when seen +down in the sea on a dark night, to glow like a white-hot cannon-ball. +Fish when dead and putrid frequently glow in the dark with a truly +magnificent light, as can be proved by every one who will take the +trouble to procure several kinds of fish, and keep them, for the purpose +of proving the fact, in a dark closet. + +Of all the minute inhabitants of the deep, that which is to our mind the +most curious, both as to its nature and its stupendous works, is the +coral insect. This creature is much too important to be dragged in at +the tail of a chapter. We will, therefore, commence its history in a +new one. + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +CORAL INSECTS AND CORAL ISLANDS--POLYNESIA--OPERATIONS OF THE CORAL +INSECT--GROWTH OF CORAL REEFS. + +Many of the large and beautiful islands that stud the Pacific Ocean, +like emeralds in a field of blue, are _artificial_; that is to say, they +were made by artists--they were actually _built_ by _artisans_! + +These artisans are the coral insects; and as they not only affect the +face of the sea by raising large islands above it, but also, in +consequence of their labours, assist in causing the circulation of the +ocean, we think they are justly entitled to very special attention. + +The great archipelago called Polynesia covers an area of the Pacific +nearly 5000 miles in length, and not far short of 2000 in breadth. Some +of the islands of this group are of volcanic origin, and some are +crystal; but by far the greater number are of coral formation--the work +of those curious little insects, which are so small that they inhabit a +dwelling sometimes little larger than a pin-point. + +The manner in which these islands are made is, to some extent, a matter +of uncertainty. The most generally received opinion is, that the +insects fasten round the summit of a submarine mountain, and build +upwards until they reach the surface of the sea, where they die, and +their labours cease. As, however, the sea is sometimes unfathomable +close to those islands, it has been supposed that the submarine islands +on which the corallines began to build have gradually subsided, and +that, as they did so, the insects always built a little more, so as to +keep the top of their structures on a level with the sea. Above the sea +they cannot build. To be washed by the waves is essential to their +existence. + +We do not think this a very satisfactory theory, because it supposes a +prolonged subsiding of these islands, and then an unaccountably sudden +stoppage. For although the corallines might continue to build during +the whole time of subsidence, it were utterly impossible that the coral +_island_, with its luxuriant herbage, could be formed until that +subsidence should have ceased. The manner in which the islands are +formed makes this obvious. + +When the coral reef, as it is called, reaches the surface, it advances +no further. Soon the action of the waves breaks off the branches of the +upper portions of coral, which are tossed upon the reef, and pulverised +into fine sand. This goes on increasing until the island rises a little +above the waves. + +When this happens, birds alight there; sea-drift is carried thither; +seeds are blown to it by the wind; and gradually a few green blades +arise. From this little beginning it is easy to conceive the process by +which at last a flourishing island springs up. At the same time, it is +not easy to see how such islands could ever be formed on the supposition +that the submarine rocks on which they were founded were perpetually +subsiding. + +But be that as it may, we have no difficulty in understanding the fact +that the coral insect does build those islands. It possesses the power +of secreting the lime held in solution by sea water, and depositing the +same on the rocks below the waves. The coral rock is the edifice of the +coralline. The insect itself is a soft and very minute worm, which, +when washed by the waves, thrusts its head out of its tiny little door, +and spreading abroad its numerous feelers, so that it resembles a +beautiful little star, moves these about as if enjoying itself--though, +doubtless, it is actually engaged in the process of manufacturing its +little atom of coral rock. + +It is extremely interesting to think of the immense power of _union_ +thus exhibited. Singly, those little creatures could not produce a +sufficient result to attract the attention of any creature save such as +chanced to come in direct and close contact with its little cell. +United, they have formed vast islands, which have become the abode of +man, and which, in the aggregate, form no inconsiderable portion of the +globe. + +The consideration of this leads us to perceive that God has ordained +that units cannot, separately, accomplish much; and that united effort, +in order to be successful, requires the harmonious action of units. "A +house divided against itself cannot stand." The innumerable and +eminently beautiful isles of the Pacific had never stood where they now +stand if the curious, and separately insignificant, little architects +that reared them had not wrought unitedly upon a fixed and systematic +plan--each insect working its utmost from the hour of its birth until +that of its death. + +There are various kinds of coral insects, which form varied species of +coral rock. Some kinds of coral assume the form of rounded masses; some +are like a branching shrub; others are in layers, or thin plates; and +some are shaped like the human brain, from which they derive their +name--brainstones. These different kinds differ also in colour, and +thus present a beautiful appearance when seen at the bottom of clear and +shallow water. + +In regard to the rate at which the corallines build their cells there is +some diversity of opinion--some asserting that the process is +imperceptible, while others state as positively that it is rapid. There +can be no doubt that some localities and positions are more favourable +to the growth of coral than others. Dr Allan, while at Madagascar, +made several experiments to test this. He selected several masses of +coral, each weighing about ten pounds, and of different species. These +he placed three feet below the surface of the sea, and staked them in to +prevent removal. In a little more than six months they were found to +have risen nearly to the surface, and to have attached themselves to the +solid rock. + +There is also a case mentioned of a ship in the Persian Gulf which, in +the course of twenty months, had her copper encased with living coral to +the thickness of two feet. + +On the other hand, it is asserted, and we doubt not with equal truth, +that many reefs do not seem to increase in size in the course of many +years. + +When a coral reef has reached the surface, the formation of an island +instantly begins; but it necessarily takes a long time ere this island +becomes habitable by man. Among the first plants that raise their heads +to the sea-breeze is the graceful cocoa-nut palm. This tree is +exceedingly hardy, and is found growing on reefs which are so low that +at a distance the trees seem to be standing on the surface of the water. +Indeed many of them spring out of the pure white sand, and their roots +are washed perpetually by the salt spray. Nevertheless, the fruit of +such trees is sweet and good. + +Coral islands of the kind we have just described seldom rise more than a +few feet above the level of the sea; but most of them are clothed with +luxuriant vegetation. + +We might easily fill a volume on the subject of the ocean's inhabitants, +small and great; but we think the few to which we have made reference is +sufficient for the purpose of showing that one set of creatures accounts +for that strange luminosity of the ocean which is seen at times in all +marine parts of the globe, while another set accounts not only for the +sudden appearance of coral islands in the sea where no such islands +existed in days of old, but also, partly, for that circulation of the +waters of the ocean which is absolutely necessary to the wellbeing of +all the creatures on this earth. + +There are other animals in the sea, besides medusae, which assist in +giving luminosity to its waters; and there are other insects, besides +corallines, which extract its lime, destroy its equilibrium, and assist +in causing its perpetual motion; but the two species which we have +described are the best types of the respective classes to which they +belong. + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +VOLCANIC ISLANDS--OPINIONS OF THE ANCIENTS--"ATLANTIS"--INSTANCE OF THE +FORMATION OF A VOLCANIC ISLAND--CONCLUSION. + +In the last chapter we described the manner in which a certain class of +islands in the South Seas are formed; in the present we will make a few +observations on another class, which have sprung up from the bottom of +the sea, as if by magic, under the irresistible influence of fire. + +There are volcanoes in the sea, as well as on the land; and these +volcanoes have in former times up-heaved huge masses of land so as to +form large islands, while in other cases they have caused islands +formerly in existence to subside and disappear. + +In the writings of the ancients we find reference made to an island +which, if it ever did exist, now exists no longer. It was situated +opposite the Straits of Gibraltar, was nearly two hundred miles in +length, and was called "Atlantis"--hence the name of the Atlantic Ocean. +Many believe, and with some reason, we think, that this island was not +altogether a myth, although much that is said of it is undoubtedly +fabulous. + +Plato tells us that it was a large island in the Western Ocean, situated +before or opposite to the Straits of Gades; and that out of this island +there was an easy passage into some others which lay near a large +continent, exceeding in bigness all Europe and Asia. So far Plato may +have told the truth, and from this passage it is conjectured that the +existence of the continent of America was known to the ancients. But he +goes on, immediately after, to draw upon his imagination, and to tell us +that Neptune settled on this island, and that his posterity dwelt there +for a period of nine thousand years in the midst of fertility and +abundance. But, not content with their ample possessions and prolific +soil, they went over to Africa and Europe, and even penetrated into +Asia, bent on conquest. + +Passing from this mixture of probable truth and undoubted fable, Plato +then asserts that the island of Atlantis finally sank and disappeared. +This may or may not be true, but there is more reason for our crediting +the statement than many people would suppose. Certain it is that no +such island exists at the present time, but it is believed by some that +the Azores, which are volcanic in their formation, are the summits of +the mountain ranges of the Atlantis of the ancients. + +But the best evidence we have of the possible existence of such an +island is the fact that in modern times an island has been _seen_ to +rise out of the sea, and, after a time, to disappear, under the +influence of volcanic action. + +This remarkable event is related by Captain Tillard, an officer of the +British Navy, who saw it on the 12th of June 1811, when approaching the +island of St. Michael. On this occasion smoke was seen to rise from the +surface of the sea, and, soon after, showers of cinders to burst forth. +We cannot do better than give the captain's own words, as follows: + +"Imagine an immense body of smoke rising from the sea, the surface of +which was marked by the silvery rippling of the waves. In a quiescent +state it had the appearance of a circular cloud revolving on the water, +like a horizontal wheel, in various and irregular involutions, expanding +itself gradually on the lee side; when, suddenly, a column of the +blackest cinders, ashes, and stones, would shoot up in the form of a +spire, at an angle of from ten to twenty degrees from a perpendicular +line, the angle of inclination being universally to windward. This was +rapidly succeeded by a second, third, and fourth shower, each acquiring +greater velocity, and overtopping the other, till they had attained an +altitude as much above the level of our eye as the sea was below it. + +"As the impetus with which the several columns were severally propelled +diminished, and their ascending motion had nearly ceased, they broke +into various branches resembling a group of pines. These again formed +themselves into festoons of white feathery smoke, in the most fanciful +manner imaginable, intermixed with the finest particles of falling +ashes; which at one time assumed the appearance of innumerable plumes of +black and white ostrich feathers surmounting each other; at another, +that of the light wavy branches of a weeping willow. + +"During these bursts the most vivid flashes of lightning continually +issued from the densest part of the volcano; and the cloud of smoke now +ascending to an altitude much above the highest point to which the ashes +were projected, rolled off in large masses of fleecy clouds, gradually +expanding themselves before the wind, in a direction nearly horizontal, +and drawing up to them a quantity of water-spouts, which formed a most +beautiful and striking addition to the general appearance of the scene." + +Such is the description given of this submarine volcano in action; and +the crater which was thrown up at the time was about twenty feet above +the level of the sea. As Captain Tillard could not, however, delay his +voyage to make further observations at that time, the action that +subsequently took place is not known; but its results were seen shortly +afterwards. + +In about three weeks after the date of his passing the spot, Captain +Tillard returned to it and found an island of about a mile in +circumference, with a height of between two and three hundred feet at +its highest point. There was no violent eruption going on, although the +craters still emitted smoke. He therefore landed, and, on reaching the +largest crater, found it to be full of boiling water, which overflowed +and found its way to the ocean in a river of about six yards in width. +This island, however, was not a permanent addition to the world's +archipelago. It sank into the ocean again, and disappeared in October +of the same year in which it rose. + +In commencing this little book we set out with the intention of rambling +hither and thither, among things that relate to the sea, without regard +to order. We have carried out our intention; and now, at the close of +our task, find that the more we listen to the Ocean's Voice, the more we +find its tale to be interminable, though the reverse of uninteresting. + +In these rambles we have sought to treat chiefly of those scientific +facts relating to the sea and the atmospheric ocean, which are not so +frequently made the subject of books for the young, as are the wild and +daring deeds of man upon the surface of the mighty deep. + +It is not sufficient that man should become acquainted with the doings +of his fellows on the sea. This is but one branch of general knowledge, +and a very secondary one compared with that infinitely higher branch +which treats of the workings of the Almighty in the ocean; workings +which render it what it is--not merely a means of commercial enterprise +for man and a home for fish, but also a great purifier and revivifier of +the earth and sweetener of the atmosphere. God is the great first cause +of all that is and that operates in the universe. It were an act of +presumption to inquire into what we may term the first acts of the +Almighty's power. But there is no presumption--on the contrary there is +propriety, as well as the highest gratification of which the human mind +is capable--in penetrating through the paths of knowledge up to that +first series of second causes which circle like a glory round the +fountain-head. We may not put the question, "How did God create all +things out of nothing?" but, all things having been created, it is quite +legitimate to inquire how the circles of their manifold operations are +carried on, and in what respect the things that be do affect each other. + +No book that has of late years issued from the press treats more +eloquently and interestingly of such subjects of inquiry than that +admirable work of Captain Maury of the United States Navy, entitled "The +Physical Geography of the Sea." Much of the substance of what we have +written has been culled from the pages of that fascinating volume. But +we have merely plucked one or two leaves, as it were, and presented them +to our readers in the hope that they may be tempted by their fragrance +to pluck the flower. The mysteries of the atmospheric and aqueous +oceans are here treated of fully, yet so agreeably, that one is +frequently apt to fancy one is perusing the pages of romance. + +In our own little book we have been compelled to skim lightly, and, in +many places, to pass over subjects of great interest. + +As for other subjects connected with the sea, of which we may not treat, +they are innumerable. Of the sea-weeds that clothe the bottom of the +deep with the rich profusion and glowing colours of the gardens of +earth--of the myriads of animalcules (besides those we have mentioned) +that disport in its waters and fill the abyss with life and lambent +fire--of the great whales and other huge creatures that revel in its +depths and lash its waters in their terrible might--of these and a host +of kindred subjects, our space forbids our saying more than that the +Voice of Ocean has much to tell us in regard to them, and in regard to +the provident care of their beneficent Creator. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Ocean and its Wonders, by R.M. Ballantyne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OCEAN AND ITS WONDERS *** + +***** This file should be named 21754.txt or 21754.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/7/5/21754/ + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |