UC-NRLF 
 

THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
 
THE OCEAN AND ITS WONDERS. 
 
THE OCEAN. 
 
THE OCEAN 
 
 AND ITS WONDERS. 
 
 R. M. BALLANTYNE, 
 
 AUTHOR, OF " THE YOUNG FUR-TRADERS," " MAN ON THE OCEAN,' 
 " THE GORILLA HUNTERS," ETC. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW; 
 EDINBURGH ; AND NEW YORK. 
 
 1876. 
 
it. 
 
 1HE Voice of Ocean is constantly discours- 
 ing of many interesting and stirring 
 truths and events to those who are 
 disposed to listen. 
 
 The particular discourse recorded in this volume 
 is that which treats chiefly of the causes and 
 effects of those grand oceanic and atmospheric 
 currents which modify the climates of the Earth, 
 and diversify the face of Nature from the Equator 
 to the Poles. 
 
 Our information has been gathered from many 
 sources chief among which we may mention that 
 delightful book, " Maury's Physical Geography of 
 the Sea." 
 
 R. M. BALLANTYNE. 
 
 EDINBURGH, 1873. 
 
 M377C92 
 
(STonttnts. 
 
 CHAPTER T. 
 
 WHAT THE OCEAN HAS TO SAY ITS WHISPERS ITS THUNDERS 
 ITS SECRETS 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 COMPOSITION OF THE SEA ITS SALTS POWER AND USES OF WATER 
 
 ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE OF SALTS ANECDOTE 
 
 DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS BROOKE'S APPARATUS IMPORTANCE 
 
 OF THE SEARCH AFTER TRUTH ILLUSTRATIONS DISCOVERIES 
 RESULTING FROM DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS 11 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 WAVES SYSTEM IN ALL THINGS VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTE HEIGHT OF WAVES DR. SCORBSBY 
 
 SIZE, VELOCITY, AND AWFUL POWER OF WAVES ANECDOTES 
 
 REGARDING THEM TIDES 32 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 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 IN- 
 FLUENCE 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 50 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE ATMOSPHERIC OCEAN ORDER IN ITS FLOW OFFICES OF THE 
 
 ATMOSPHERE DANGERS LESSENED BY SCIENCE CURRENTS OF 
 
 ATMOSPHERE CAUSE OF WIND TWO GREAT CURRENTS DIS- 
 TURBING INFLUENCES CALMS VARIABLE WINDS CAUSES 
 
 THEREOF LOCAL CAUSES OF DISTURBANCE GULF STREAM'S 
 INFLUENCE THE WINDS MAPPED OUT A SUPPOSED CASE.. .. 74 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TRADE-WINDS STORMS THEIR EFFECTS MONSOONS THEIR VALUE 
 
 LAND AND SEA BREEZES EXPERIMENTS HURRICANES 
 
 THOSE OF 1831 ROTATORY STORMS THEIR TERRIBLE EFFECTS 
 
 CHINA SEAS HURRICANE IN 1837 WHIRLWINDS WEIGHT 
 
 OF ATMOSPHERE VALUE OF ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION 
 HEIGHT OF ATMOSPHERE j 90 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WATERSPOUTS CAUSES OF APPEARANCE ELECTRICITY EXPERI- 
 MENTS ARTIFICIAL WATERSPOUTS SHOWERS OF FISH MR. 
 
 ELLIS ON WATERSPOUTS IN THE SOUTH SEAS Ill 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE ARCTIC SEAS THEIR CHARACTER, SCENERY, AND ATMOSPHERI- 
 CAL ILLUSIONS 126 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FORMATION OF ICE DANGERS OF DISRUPTING ICE ANECDOTE 
 
 DRIFTING ICE DRIFT OF THE "FOX" "NIPPING" ANECDOTE 
 
 LOSS OF THE " BREAD ALBANE " 134 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ICEBERGS THEIR APPEARANCE AND FORMS THEIR CAUSE 
 
 GLACIERS THEIR NATURE AND ORIGIN ANECDOTE OF SCORESBY 
 
 RISK AMONG ICEBERGS M'CLURE'S EXPERIENCE 150 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 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 SSA 166 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 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 EXPEDI- 
 TION A BEAR-HUNT 176 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. ' 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA OF THE POLAR SEAS AND REGIONS 
 THE AURORA BOREALIS ICE-BLINK OPTICAL ILLUSIONS 
 
 ANECDOTE OF SCORESBY HALOS CORONAS MOCK SUNS 
 
 REFRACTION FROSTS 194 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE SEA MEDUSA FOOD OF THE WHALE 
 
 PHOSPHORIC LIGHT CAUSE THEREOF LUMINOSITY OF THE 
 OCEAN 206 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CORAL INSECTS AND CORAL ISLANDS POLYNESIA OPERATIONS OF 
 
 THE CORAL INSECT GROWTH OF CORAL REEFS 219 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 VOLCANIC ISLANDS OPINIONS OF THE ANCIENTS "ATLANTIS" 
 INSTANCE OF THE FORMATION OF A VOLCANIC ISLAND CON- 
 CLUSION 228 
 
THE OCEAN AND ITS WONDERS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WHAT THE OCEAN HAS TO SAY ITS WHISPERS ITS THUNDERS 
 ITS SECRETS. 
 
 IHERE is a voice in the waters of the 
 great sea. It calls to man continu- 
 ally. 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 bil- 
 lows 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 
 
14 THE OCEAN'S TALE : 
 
 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, villany, hero- 
 ism, and enterprise. But with this poi^ion 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 re- 
 semblance 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 
 
ITS SECRETS. ] 5 
 
 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 con- 
 fusion; 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 whiclu we shall cer- 
 tainly 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 wonder- 
 ful, and past finding out. It is the latter class 
 of secrets to which we purpose directing the 
 reader's attention in the following pages. 
 
 On approaching so vast a subject, we feel like 
 the traveller who, finding himself suddenly trans- 
 ported 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, 
 the wealth, and industry of every people and 
 clime, attempts, in vain, to systematize his ex- 
 plorations, or to fix his attention. It is probable 
 
16 
 
 THE PROPOSAL. 
 
 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 agree- 
 able 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. 
 
 (451) 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 COMPOSITION OF THE SEA ITS SALTS POWER AND USES OF WATER 
 
 ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE OF SALTS ANECDOTE 
 
 DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS BROOKED APPARATUS IMPORTANCE 
 
 OF THE SEARCH AFTER TRUTH ILLUSTRATIONS DISCOVERIES 
 RESULTING FROM DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS 
 
 EFORE proceeding to the consideration of 
 the wonders connected with and con- 
 tained 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 1 
 or, as there are many kinds of salt water, of what 
 sort of salt water does the sea consist 1 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 com- 
 posed of two gases oxygen and hydrogen. Sea 
 water is composed of the same gases, with the 
 addition of muriate of soda, magnesia, iron, lime, 
 
 (451) Q 
 
 /6 
 
18 COMPOSITION OF THE SEA. 
 
 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 com- 
 paratively small quantity in the sea, with the ex- 
 ception 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 in- 
 deed. 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 evapora- 
 tion 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 con- 
 tained in it, are conveyed thither by the fresh- water 
 streams that pour into it from all the continents 
 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 con- 
 veys heat away from the torrid zone, and ice from the 
 frigid ; or, bottling the caloric away in the vesicles 
 
A BEAUTIFUL COMPENSATION. 19 
 
 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 moun- 
 tains, 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 trans- 
 ported 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 sub- 
 stances 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 suc- 
 ceeding chapter. 
 
 The operations of the ocean are manifold. Be- 
 sides forming a great reservoir, into which what 
 
20 OPERATIONS OF WATEfc. 
 
 may be termed the impurities of the land are con- 
 veyed, 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 pre- 
 cipitated in the form of rain and dew, fertilizing 
 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 
 
OPERATIONS OF WATER. 
 
 21 
 
 ACTION OF WAVES UPON A 11OCKY SHORE. 
 
 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 
 
22 ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE OF SALTS. 
 
 by them to other regions, and are deposited on 
 flat beaches, far from their native cliffs. 
 
 FORMATION O* 1 ICEBERGS. 
 
 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 salt- 
 ness of the sea is the consequent unfitness of its 
 water for drinking. Many and harrowing are the 
 
A USEFUL CONTRIVANCE. 23 
 
 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 ex- 
 pressed in the poem of the " Ancient Mariner :" 
 
 "Water, water everywhere, 
 And not a drop to drink." 
 
 Science, however, at length enabled us to over- 
 come 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 in- 
 ventive 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 
 
24 EXTENT AND DEPTH OF OCEAN. 
 
 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 dis- 
 tilling 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 Thomp- 
 son 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 
 
DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS. 25 
 
 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 contriv- 
 ances. 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 com- 
 pression; 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 
 
26 BROOKE'S APPARATUS. 
 
 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 
 
BROOKE S APPARATUS. 
 
 27 
 
 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 
 
 BROOKE'S SOUNDLNG APPARATUS. 
 
 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 ascer- 
 
28 IMPORTANCE OF THE SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 tained 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 refer- 
 ence 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 inven- 
 tions of modern times have been the result of dis- 
 coveries 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 
 
RESULTS OF DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS. 29 
 
 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. Sound- 
 ings 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 
 sea-bord 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 dis- 
 
30 RESULTS OF DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS. 
 
 covery of truth alone, and without the most distant 
 reference to the Atlantic Telegraph, yet that tele- 
 graph has been one of the results of that study. 
 Who can tell how many more shall follow 1 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 
 pulverizing violence of waves. Hence the conclu- 
 sion 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 con- 
 clude that this must necessarily be the case. There 
 are, as we shall presently show, currents of vast size 
 
A WONDERFUL ARRANGEMENT. 31 
 
 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 
 Magara is but a tiny rivulet 1 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 founda- 
 tions 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 III. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 
 
SYSTEM IN ALL THINGS. 33 
 
 " 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," &c., 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 cur- 
 rents. Amongst these there are numberless eddies, 
 which, perhaps, have tended to fill our minds with the 
 idea of irregularity and confusion ; but which, never- 
 theless, 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 investi- 
 gations of late years especially those conducted 
 under the superintendence of Captain Maury of the 
 American Navy, and Drs. 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 prac- 
 tical account.* 
 
 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 
 
 * The gentlemen here referred to are agreed as to the fact of syste- 
 matic arrangement of currents, though they differ in regard to some 
 of the causes thereof and other mattei'S. 
 
34 VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 called the Gulf Stream, he gives the following ac- 
 count of the manner in which upon one occasion he 
 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. Ves- 
 sels 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 
 
VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE. 35 
 
 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 in- 
 structions." 
 
 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 prac- 
 tical man of science. Proceeding upon the suppo- 
 sition 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 
 
36 HEIGHT OF WAVES. 
 
 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 
 
SIZE AND VELOCITY OF WAVES. 39 
 
 driving spray in the cabin, one eccentric old gentle- 
 man was seen skipping about the deck with un- 
 wonted 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 some- 
 where 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. 
 
40 
 
 AWFUL POWER OF WAVES. 
 
 A GREAT WAVK AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 
 
 Waves travel at a rate which increases in pro- 
 portion 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 harm- 
 less. 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 re- 
 semble 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. Some- 
 
A TOWN SWEPT AWAY. 41 
 
 times waves of more than usually gigantic propor- 
 tions 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. 
 
42 A FEARFUL SIGHT. 
 
 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 warn- 
 ing 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 spread- 
 ing 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 
 
TOTAL DESTRUCTION. 43 
 
 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 be- 
 came 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 bil- 
 lows are called, are said to be the result of the re- 
 moval of atmospheric pressure in certain parts of 
 the ocean over which a storm is raging. This re- 
 moval 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. Dur- 
 ing 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, ac- 
 cumulating 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 dis- 
 tance. The horror-stricken inhabitants had scarcely 
 
44 OF WAVES " TRAVELLING." 
 
 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, inun- 
 dating all the low country. The third, rushing on- 
 ward 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 sta- 
 tionary, excepting the spray and foam on the sur- 
 face, and is only possessed of a rising and sinking 
 motion. This undulatory motion, or impulse, is 
 transmitted from each particle of water to its neigh- 
 bouring 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 
 
ORIGIN OF WAVES. 45 
 
 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 
 
 SCATTERED INTO FOAM. 
 
 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 
 
46 
 
 THE TIDES. 
 
 in foam, and the ocean in a few minutes presents 
 the appearance of a caldron 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 im- 
 mediate 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 Sowings 
 
 THE FLOWING TIDE. 
 
 and ebbings of the water every twenty-four hours 
 are called are caused principally by the attractive 
 
CAUSES OF TIDES. 47 
 
 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 follow- 
 ing the moon, and hence the two high tides in the 
 twenty-four hours. This second wave has been ac^ 
 counted 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 at- 
 tracts 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, fig. 1. 
 
 -e 
 
 Fig. 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 
 
ELEVATION OF TIDES. 
 
 of a very high or spring-tide, as in Jig. 2, where the 
 tide at a and b has risen extremely high, while at 
 c and d it has fallen correspondingly low. When 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 they act in opposition to each other, as at the moon's 
 quarter, there occurs a very low or neap-tide. In 
 fig. 3 the moon has raised high tide at a and 6, but 
 the sun has counteracted its influence to some ex- 
 tent at c and d, thus producing neap-tides, which 
 
 Fig. S. 
 
 neither rise so high nor fall so low 
 as do other tides. Tides attain vari- 
 ous elevations in different parts of 
 the world, partly owing to local influ- 
 ences. In the Bristol Channel the 
 tide rises to nearly sixty feet, while in the Medi- 
 terranean it is extremely small, owing to the land- 
 locked 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 
 
VALUE OF TIDES. 49 
 
 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 fresh- 
 ness and health all round the world. 
 
 (451) 
 
CHAPTER IY. 
 
 THE GULF STREAM ITS NATURE CAUSE ILLUSTRATION EFFECT 
 OF SMALL TOWERS UNITED ADVENTURES OF A PARTICLE OP 
 WATER EFFECT OF GULF STREAM ON CLIMATE ITS COURSE IN- 
 FLUENCE 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. 
 
 1 all 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 
 
CAUSE OF THE GULF STREAM. 53 
 
 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 some- 
 what 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 origina- 
 tion 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 salt- 
 ness. These conditions alter the specific gravity of 
 
54 CAUSE OF THE GULF STREAM. 
 
 the waters of the ocean in some places more than in 
 others ; hence the equilibrium is destroyed, and cur- 
 rents 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. 
 
ADVENTURES OF A PARTICLE OF WATER. 55 
 
 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 powder 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. Be- 
 fore that particle can be restored to its original con- 
 dition of equality, every other particle of water in 
 the ocean must part with a share of its super- 
 abundant lime ! The thing must be done. That 
 bereaved particle cannot rest without its lime. It 
 forthwith commences to travel for the purpose of lay- 
 ing its brother-particles under contribution; and it 
 travels far and wide round and round the world. 
 Myriads upon myriads of coral insects are perpetu- 
 
56 
 
 ADVENTURES OF A PARTICLE OF WATER. 
 
 ally engaged in thus robbing the sea water of its 
 lime; shells are formed in a similar manner : so that 
 
 BRANCH OF RED CORAL WITH THE POLYPS IN. 
 
 A, branch of coral ; a, the stony stem ; b, ves- 
 sels spreading ; c, vessels going in straight lines ; 
 B, a germ set free ; c, a full-grown polyp. 
 
 our particle soon finds itself in company with in- 
 numerable 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, be- 
 stows upon it an unusual amount pf heat; and the 
 surrounding particles, not to be out-done, 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 
 
ADVENTURES OF A PARTICLE OF WATER. 57 
 
 particles ; joins the great army of the ocean's cur- 
 rents ; 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, &c., 
 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 super- 
 abundance 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 re- 
 
58 COURSE OF THE GULF STREAM. 
 
 freshing rain or dew. Having fertilized 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 fufilling 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 narrow- 
 ness 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 
 
ITS EFFECT ON CLIMATE. 59 
 
 the cold towards the south. There are similar cur- 
 rents 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 char- 
 acter the thermometer seldom rising up so high 
 as zero during many months, and often ranging 
 down so low as 50 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 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-bord 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 
 
60 EFFECT OF GULF STREAM ON NAVIGATION. 
 
 on navigation. In former times, when men re- 
 garded 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 in- 
 terruptions 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 often- 
 times place themselves in highly favourable cir- 
 cumstances. 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. 
 
THE SARGASSO SEA. 
 
 63 
 
 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 ap- 
 
 SARGASSO WEED. 
 
 pearance of solid land ; and ships find extreme diffi- 
 culty in getting through this region, which is ren- 
 dered still further unnavigable by the prevalence of 
 long-continued calms. This Sargasso Sea is of con- 
 siderable extent, and lies off the west coast of Africa, 
 a little to the north of the Cape Verd Islands. 
 
64 SCIENTIFIC EFFORTS. 
 
 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 fol- 
 lowers, thinking they had reached the end of the 
 world, were filled with consternation. This Sar- 
 gasso Sea lies in the same spot at the present day, 
 but men now know its extent and position. In- 
 stead of steering straight for port, they proceed a 
 considerable distance out of their way, and f by avoid- 
 ing 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 at- 
 mosphere : so that, now-a-days, by taking advan- 
 tage 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 
 
WIND AND CURRENT CHARTS : 65 
 
 master-minds have succeeded in gathering within 
 their own grasp the myriad facts collected by thou- 
 sands of naval men, of all countries, in their various 
 voyages ; and, by a careful comparison and philo- 
 sophical investigation of these facts, they have ascer- 
 tained and systematized 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 mate- 
 rially advanced. 
 
 The truth of this has of late been proved by in- 
 contestable 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 expe- 
 rience) was 146 days. Between England and Aus- 
 tralia 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 
 
 (451) 5 
 
G6 EFFECTS OF WIND AND CURRENT CHARTS. 
 
 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 cts. ; to California, also about 
 20 cts. The mean of this is a little over 19 cts. 
 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 pas- 
 sage 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 (468,750) 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 
 
THE GULF STREAM AS A REFUGE. 67 
 
 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 as- 
 certained, 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 posi- 
 tion by solar observation. Now, not only the ex- 
 istence, 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 demarca- 
 tion between the warm waters of the Gulf Stream 
 and the cold waters of the sea is so sharp and dis- 
 tinct, that by the use of the thermometer the pre- 
 cise 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 pas- 
 sage 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 
 
68 A PLEASANT CHANGE. 
 
 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 fre- 
 quently 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 coasl, 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 re- 
 fuse 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 sum- 
 mer heat ! " Now," as Maury beautifully expresses 
 it, " the ice disappears from her apparel ; the sailor 
 bathes his limbs in tepid waters. Feeling himself 
 
THE GULF STREAM A CAUSE OF STORMS. 69 
 
 invigorated and refreshed with the genial warmth 
 about him, he realizes 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, per- 
 haps, 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 ]and 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 some- 
 what 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 
 
70 THE GULF STREAM OVER WHAT IT FLOWS. 
 
 that of its waters was 80. 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 be- 
 lieved, 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 bitter- 
 ness 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 pro- 
 bably 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 win- 
 dow-frames and heated with iron stoves ; and our 
 garments would have to be made of the thickest 
 woollens and the warmest furs ! 
 
THE GULF STREAM MARINE ANIMALS. 71 
 
 The presence and the unchanging regularity of 
 these great hot and cold currents in the ocean is in- 
 dicated 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 re- 
 gion in the sea. All the beautiful and delicate ma- 
 rine 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 compara- 
 tively 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 
 
72 
 
 WHALES AND MEDUSAE. 
 
 fill 
 
 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 re'invigorate 
 themselves by change of water ; and, quitting for a 
 time the beauteous coral groves, spend a few of the 
 summer- 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 use- 
 and .manifold pur- 
 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 consti- 
 tute the principal food 
 of that species of whale 
 which is termed the right 
 whale. Navigators have 
 frequently observed large 
 quantities of these me- 
 dusae floating along with 
 the Gulf Stream ; and 
 one sea captain in partic- 
 ular fell in with an extraordinarily large quantity 
 of them, of a very peculiar species, off the coast of 
 
 A MEDUSA. 
 
WHAT IS THE SEA? 73 
 
 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 
 round and round the world, fulfilling the will of its 
 great Creator. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE ATMOSPHERIC OCEAN ORDER IN ITS FLOW OFFICES OF THE 
 ATMOSPHERE DANGERS LESSENED BY SCIENCE CURRENTS OF 
 ATMOSPHERE CAUSE OF WIND TWO GREAT CURRENTS DIS- 
 TURBING INFLUENCES CALMS VARIABLE WINDS CAUSES 
 
 THEREOF LOCAL CAUSES OF DISTURBANCE GULF STREAM'S 
 INFLUENCE THE WINDS MAPPED OUT A SUPPOSED CASE. 
 
 |ISH are not the only creatures that live in 
 an ocean. We, the human inhabitants of 
 this 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 phe- 
 
THE ATMOSPHERIC OCEAN. 75 
 
 nomena 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 un- 
 ruffled 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 hav- 
 ing 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 purifica- 
 tion, 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 in- 
 exhaustible magazine, marvellously stored ; and 
 
76 IGNORANCE OF EARLY AGES. 
 
 upon the proper working of this machine depends 
 the well-being, of every plant and animal that in- 
 habits 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 ob- 
 servations, 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 
 
A HURRICANE AT SEA. 
 
THE FLOW OF THE ATMOSPHERE. 79 
 
 for the approaching breeze. But there are times 
 when no such warning is given when the atmos- 
 phere j.s 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 sadden 
 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 mer- 
 cury, 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 im- 
 pending 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 equalize 
 
80 WIND ITS PRIMARY CAUSE: 
 
 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 per- 
 manent stagnation of the atmosphere; and this 
 would speedily result in the destruction of every liv- 
 ing thing. But by the varied arid beautiful arrange- 
 ments 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 tKe 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 ir- 
 regularities and interruptions that we observe are 
 
ITS TWO GREAT COURSES. 81 
 
 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 state- 
 ment 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 con- 
 stantly change places the lower current becoming 
 the upper, and vice versd. But they do not change 
 direction. The Equatorial Current ascends, rushes 
 north to a point about lat. 30, where, being suffi- 
 ciently 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. 
 
 (451) 6 
 
82 DISTURBING INFLUENCES. 
 
 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 dis- 
 turbing 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 nor- 
 therly and southerly flow. We tnus account for an 
 easterly tendency to the winds, but whence their 
 westerly flow 1 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 
 
VARIABLE WINDS. 83 
 
 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 be- 
 come a gentle easterly breeze. But now, throw 
 aside this supposition ; our breeze rushes north ; 
 at lat. 30 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 sweep- 
 ing off, 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 begin- 
 ning, 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 
 
84 LOCAL CAUSES. 
 
 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 pro- 
 duce 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, there- 
 fore 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 cease- 
 less operation at all times, so their disturbing influ- 
 ence 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 
 
WINDS MAPPED OtJT. 85 
 
 of a river, whose surface is affected by the compara- 
 tively 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 inves- 
 tigation 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 turn- 
 ing 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 
 
86 ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA LONG tJNKNOWN. 
 
 of slavery, instead of themselves being at their 
 mercy. 
 
 The world may be said to be encircled by a suc- 
 cession 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 cir- 
 culation 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 th^ 
 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 ex- 
 perience 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, 
 
A SUPPOSED CASE. 87 
 
 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 systematize 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 for- 
 mer 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 pre- 
 vailing winds to be easterly. 
 
 Next year he sets forth again; but merchants 
 
88 A SUPPOSED CASE. 
 
 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 j 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 ground- 
 work 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 par- 
 ticular direction ; that in number four it blows in- 
 variably 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 tem- 
 porary causes we see how confusion becomes worse 
 confounded. No doubt he does gather some few 
 crumbs of knowledge ; but he is called on, perhaps, 
 
A GREAT CHANGE. 89 
 
 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 appear- 
 ances, 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 pro- 
 gressions 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 VI. 
 
 TRADE-WINDS STORMS THEIR EFFECTS MONSOONS THEIR VALUE 
 
 LAND AND SEA BREEZES EXPERIMENTS HURRICANES 
 
 THOSE OF 1831 ROTATORY STORMS THEIR TERRIBLE EFFECTS 
 
 CHINA SEAS HURRICANE IN 1837 WHIRLWINDS WEIGHT 
 
 OF ATMOSPHERE VALUE OF ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION 
 HEIGHT OF ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 'ORE 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 inshes from the 
 south pole is, of course, a south \v_'nd, that from 
 the north pole a north wind ; but, owing to the 
 Earth's motion on its axis from west to east, the 
 
TRADE-WINDS. 
 
 91 
 
 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 
 
 i\ M \ \ ^P 
 
 S.E. Trade-] I'inds. 
 
 \ \ 
 
 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ 
 
 Counter Trade-Winds from N.W. 
 
 ~ 
 
 DIAGRAM OP THE TRADE-WINDS. 
 
 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 
 
92 TRADE-WINDS. 
 
 trouble and difficulty do ships experience in 
 crossing it. 
 
 It has already been explained that about lat. 30, 
 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 atmos- 
 phere. This immense body of heated water, pass- 
 ing 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 
 
MONSOONS. 93 
 
 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 Ledbury 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 t)ne 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 
 
94 MONSOON STORM. 
 
 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, 
 
 o" 
 
 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 tantalize 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 
 
A HURRICANE ON LAND. 
 
MONSOONS THEIR VALUE. 97 
 
 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 011 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 
 
 (451) 7 
 
08 MONSOONS -THEIR CAUSE. 
 
 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 rr .nsoons upon land 
 and sea. Of course the t<- .inc gales that usher 
 them in and out could not be expected to pass with- 
 out 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, 
 
LAND AND SEA BREEZES. 99 
 
 for the most part, deflected trade-winds. And they 
 owe their deflection to the presence of large con- 
 tinents. 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 con- 
 tinents, 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 neutralize 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 
 
100 EXPERIMENTS. 
 
 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, with- 
 out them, would be almost, if not altogether, unin- 
 habitable. 
 
 In " The Tempest," an interesting work on the 
 origin and phenomena of wind, published by the 
 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, a curi- 
 ous 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 beauti- 
 
EXPERIMENTS. I'OI 
 
 fully 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 
 
102 
 
 HURRICANES. 
 
 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, re- 
 commend 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 obtain- 
 able on short notice. The experiment of the door- 
 way, moreover, does not require that there should 
 be 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 en- 
 large 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 ref- 
 erence 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 
 
EFFECTS OF A HURRICANE. 103 
 
 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 for- 
 ward through space. 
 
 In the year 1831, a memorable and dreadful series 
 of storms passed" over some of the West India 
 Islands, and caused terrible havoc, especially in the 
 island of Barbadoes. The peculiarity of these hur- 
 ricanes 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 con- 
 stituted its terrible power. On the 10th of August 
 it reached Barbadoes; on the llth, the islands of St. 
 Vincent and St. 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 1 8th. 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 
 
104 EFFECTS OF A HURRICANE. 
 
 it dense volumes of cloud and vapour. Encounter- 
 ing 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 howl- 
 ing 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 
 
 o / 
 
HURRICANE ON THE CH"INA SEAS. 105 
 
 lipoii 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 sud- 
 denly 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 j 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 
 agonizing shrieks of misery. But hope was again 
 
lOG WHIRLWINDS. 
 
 raised, when a boat was lowered and a rope thrown 
 on board for the purpose of to wing 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 noth- 
 ing 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 bound- 
 less. 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 
 
WHIRLWINDS. 
 
 107 
 
 EFFECTS OF A CYCLONE ON THE COAST OF MOZAMBIQUE. 
 
 measure them, and it is only by scientific investiga- 
 tion 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 
 
108 WEIGHT OF THE ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 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, suffi^ 
 cient to restore from its mass many-fold the coal 
 that now exists in the world Water is not com- 
 pressible or elastic ; it may be solidified into ice or 
 vaporized into steam: but the air is elastic and com- 
 pressible. 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 
 
HEIGHT OF THE ATMOSPHERE. 109 
 
 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 at- 
 mosphere. It is said that its upper surface cannot 
 be nearer to us than fifty, and can scarcely be fur- 
 ther 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 re- 
 fractory 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 dis- 
 perses and refracts their various tints to beautify 
 the approach and the retreat of the orb of day. 
 
110 THE THOUSANDTH PART NOT TOLD. 
 
 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 atmos- 
 phere, 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 trans- 
 formations 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. 
 
fc 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WATERSPOUTS CAUSES OF APPEARANCE ELECTRICITY EXPERI- 
 MENTS ARTIFICIAL WATERSPOUTS SHOWERS OF FISH MR. 
 ELLIS ON WATERSPOUTS IN THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 IE 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 dis- 
 missed, 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 un- 
 usually thirsty ; the ordinary means of water-supply 
 through the atmosphere do not appear to be suffi- 
 cient for the demand, or war-tax in the shape of 
 water-duty, that is levied on nature. The clouds 
 
112 
 
 WATERSPOUTS. 
 
 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 
 
 WATERSPOUT. 
 
 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 
 
AN ARTIFICIAL WATERSPOUT. 113 
 
 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- elec- 
 trical 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 con- 
 ductor accumulates, the troubled liquid will elevate 
 itself in the centre, and at last become attached to 
 the ball. Draw off the electricity from the con- 
 ductor, to let the liquid resume its position ; a por- 
 tion 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 
 
 (451) 8 
 
114 A SHOWER OF FISH. 
 
 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 dis- 
 charged 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 elec- 
 tricity is necessary to raise it. 
 
 " If, in this experiment, we let the ball swing to 
 and fro, the little waterspout will travel over its 
 miniature 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, &c., 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 de- 
 scended in rain. In a letter written not long ago 
 by a gentleman in Singapore we have the following 
 account of a shower of fish : 
 
WATERSPOUTS THEIR APPEARANCE. 117 
 
 " 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 l 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 water- 
 spout is that of a column of aqueous vapour reach- 
 ing from the sea to the clouds, sometimes straight, 
 
118 WATERSPOUTS IN THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 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 attach- 
 ing 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 extemporized 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 sud- 
 denly 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 cylin- 
 drical 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 
 
COMPLETELY SURROUNDED. 119 
 
 it was not probable that, just after escaping from 
 the most imminent peril, they would fall 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 por- 
 
120 CONFLICTING FEELINGS. 
 
 tentous 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 await- 
 ing 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 im- 
 petuous waves ; the straining vision, that should 
 linger on the last ray of retiring light, as the deepen- 
 ing 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 inhabi- 
 tants of the deep;" these things caused scarcely a 
 thought, compared with the immediate prospect of 
 the disembodied spirit being ushered into the pres- 
 ence of its Maker ; the account to be rendered, and 
 the awful and unalterable destiny that would await 
 
P&AYE&S AtfSWEkEi). 121 
 
 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, ren- 
 dered 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 j 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 
 
122 DISSIPATED BY A CANNON-SHOT. 
 
 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 dissi- 
 pated 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 appro- 
 priate term. 
 
 It does not follow that a large ship would in- 
 evitably 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 suffi- 
 cient 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. 
 
SAILORS FIRING AT A WATERSPOUT. 
 
FEARFUL HAVOC. 
 
 125 
 
 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, empty- 
 ing fish ponds, half emptying harbours, and other- 
 wise exhibiting a degree of force that would un- 
 doubtedly sink the largest vessel that ever was . 
 built, if brought thoroughly to bear upon it. 
 
 The rate of motion in waterspouts varies. Some- 
 times they revolve slowly, sometimes with the ut- 
 most 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 VIII. 
 
 THE ARCTIC SEAS THEIR CHARACTER, SCENERY, AND ATMOS- 
 PHERICAL ILLUSIONS. 
 
 [ERE is a tendency on the part of most 
 writers on the subject of Polar Regions 
 especially compilers to dwell dispropor- 
 tionately on the gloomy side of the picture ; inso- 
 much 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 
 
THE POLAR REGIONS. 127 
 
 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 
 
128 WITHIN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. 
 
 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 com- 
 mence our investigations with the shadows. 
 
 Those oceans lying within the arctic circle ex- 
 hibit 'phenomena so grand, so wonderful, and so 
 varied, that they claim distinct and separate treat- 
 ment from the ocean as a whole. Here the extreme 
 cold acts with such power, and produces such ex- 
 traordinary 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, 
 
ANIMAL LIFE. 131 
 
 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, &c., 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 propor- 
 tion 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 sumrner, 
 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 
 
132 
 
 SCENERY OF THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 
 
 quantities of ice may not be seen floating about in 
 the arctic seas. 
 
 This fact it is that enables us to speak appro- 
 priately of the scenery of the Arctic Ocean. And 
 assuredly this scenery of the ice is exceedingly and 
 
 THE POLAR SEA. 
 
 strikingly beautiful. The imagination cannot con- 
 ceive the dazzling effect of a bright summer day in 
 those regions, when the ocean is clear as glass, and 
 ice-lumps and ice-mountains of every shape and 
 size are <4itterin^ in the sun's rays with intense 
 
ATMOSPHERIC ILLUSIONS.' 133 
 
 brilliancy, while the delicate whiteness of these 
 floating islands, and the magical atmospheric illu- 
 sions 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 imaginative mind a 
 most ample and attractive field wherein to expatiate. 
 
 To ascertain the causes of facts and effects so 
 curious must prove 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 IX. 
 
 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 be- 
 comes so cold that its temperature is 32 
 of Fahrenheit's scale, it loses its liquid 
 form and becomes ice. A somewhat lower tem- 
 perature 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; 
 
DANGERS OF DISRUPTING ICE. 135 
 
 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 ap- 
 plying the ear close to the ice, when a hollow, dis- 
 agreeable, grating sound was heard ascending from 
 the abyss. As the motion of the sea under the ice 
 had grown more perceptible, they became alarmed, 
 
136 
 
 LEAPING OVER A CHASM. 
 
 ESQUIMAUX LEAPING OVER A CHASM. 
 
 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 ; 
 
A. TREMENDOUS PROSPECT. 137 
 
 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 by 
 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 ren- 
 dered the attempt extremely nice and hazardous. 
 
138 A MIRACULOUS ESCAPE. 
 
 " Both sledges, however, succeeded in gaining the 
 shore, and were drawn up on 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 unreflect- 
 ing mind with feelings of solemnity. 
 
 " The Brethren were overwhelmed with amaze- 
 ment at their miraculous escape, and even the 
 Esquimaux expressed gratitude to God for their de- 
 liverance." 
 
 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 j in which shape it usually 
 drifts away with the southern currents, and, sepa- 
 rating 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 incorpo- 
 
PACK-ICE. 
 
 139 
 
 FLOATING ICE. 
 
 rated with the new ice of the succeeding winter ; 
 and not unfrequeiitly 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 circum- 
 stances in which the entire body of a pack drifts 
 slowly southward even during the whole year; 
 showing clearly that oceanic circulation is by no 
 
14:0 DRIFT OF THE "FOX." 
 
 means arrested by the icy hand of the hyperborean 
 winter. 
 
 A very remarkable drift of this kind is recorded 
 by Captain M'Clintock 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 miracu- 
 lous, manner in which they are delivered from im- 
 minent destruction. 
 
 In attempting to cross Baffin's Bay, by pene- 
 trating 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, in- 
 deed, 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, dur- 
 ing which period the Fox was firmly embedded 
 in it! 
 
 It is with difficulty the mind can form any ade- 
 quate conception of the position of those voyagers ; 
 unable to move from their icy bed, yet constantly 
 drifting over miles and miles of ocean ; uncertain 
 
SURROUNDED BY TERRORS. 141 
 
 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 sur- 
 rounded by terrors. In February, M'Clintock 
 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 ice- 
 berg. 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 past 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- 
 
142 CASE OF " NIPPING." 
 
 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 be- 
 lieve that the whole pack had been broken up 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 re- 
 plied 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 her- 
 self 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 navi- 
 gators 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 sud- 
 
LOSS OF THE " BREADALBANE." 143 
 
 denly to the end of their career as did the Breadal- 
 bane, a small vessel that was used as a transport 
 ship to the expedition in search of Sir John Frank- 
 lin in 1 852. 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 Phcenix (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, mak- 
 ing 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 mo- 
 ment 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 reach- 
 ing 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 
 
144 SUDDEN DESTRUCTION. 
 
 the loose ice, and with difficulty, and with the assist- 
 ance 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, <fec. 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, &c., 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, &c., falling about in a manner that 
 would have been certain death to me had I ven- 
 tured 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 abo,ve one minute and a half ! 
 
 " It was a very sad and unceremonious way of 
 
ACCOUNT OF THE "TERROR." 145 
 
 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 Breadal- 
 bane. While we read it, we cannot help feeling 
 that many arctic ships must have perished in a simi- 
 lar manner. It is wonderful, nevertheless, how 
 many of those that dare the dangers of the ice sur- 
 vive 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 Bread- 
 albane shows the immense power of field-ice. Hun- 
 dreds 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 some- 
 times 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 win- 
 ter of that year in the ice. Few ships have under- 
 gone severer tests than did the Terror on that 
 voyage. The severest treatment she experienced 
 was in the spring, when the disruption of the win- 
 
 (451) 10 
 
146 APPALLING CONCUSSION. 
 
 ter ice began to take place. The evening of the 
 7th of March was specially fraught with danger. 
 We quote the gallant commander's graphic ac- 
 count : 
 
 " 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 com- 
 mon 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 lar- 
 board 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 groan- 
 ing, 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." 
 
HELD AS IN A VICE. 147 
 
 Again, on the llth, Back says: " At this time 
 she showed symptoms of suffering in the hull, which 
 was evidently undergoing a severe ordeal. Inex- 
 plicable noises, in which the sharp sounds of split- 
 ting and the harsher ones of grinding were most dis- 
 tinct, 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 grind- 
 ing masses held the ship tight as in a vice ; while 
 the overwhelming pressure of the entire body, ad- 
 vancing 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 occa- 
 sion 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 up- 
 wards, 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 
 
148 AN AWFUL CRISIS. 
 
 carpenters and others stationed below were violently 
 thrown down on the deck, as people are in an 
 earthquake. It was a moment of intense sus- 
 pense. 
 
 " 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 fol- 
 lowed..:... The ship was careened fully four streaks, 
 and sprang a leak as before. Scarcely were ten 
 minutes left us for the expression of our astonish- 
 ment 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, re- 
 sembling 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 
 
POWER OF FIELD-ICE. 
 
 149 
 
 illustration 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. 
 
CHAPTEE X. 
 
 rCEBERGS THEIR APPEARANCE AND FORMS THEIR CAUSE 
 
 GLACIERS THEIR NATURE AND ORIGIN ANECDOTE OF SCORESBY 
 
 RISK AMONG ICEBERGS M*CLURE 5 S EXPERIENCE. 
 
 jjHEKE are not only ice-fields, ice-floes, &c., 
 in the polar seas, but there are ice-moun- 
 tains, 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 
 
ICEBERGS THEIR FORMS. 
 
 151 
 
 heat of the water and atmosphere united accom- 
 plishes 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, 
 
152 
 
 ICEBEKGS THEIR SIZE : 
 
 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. 
 
 OVEllHANGING BERGS. 
 
 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 
 
THEIR FORMATION. 153 
 
 liigli. 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 char- 
 acterized 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 
 Mis 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 
 
154 GLACIERS THEIR AGE : 
 
 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 moun- 
 tains of Norway, for instance, but they exist in 
 greater abundance about the poles than elsewhere. 
 
 Glaciers never melt. They have existed for un- 
 known 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 
 
THEIR NATURE. 155 
 
 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 mas- 
 todon 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 tLo 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, 
 
156 GLACIERS THEIR MOTION I 
 
 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 drge stone on the surface 
 of the snow and ma^k the spot, and return again 
 after many days \ve shall find that the stone has 
 descended the valley a short distance. We shall also 
 observe that the snow has now a variety of mark- 
 ings on its surface ; which might lead us to fancy, 
 had we not known better, that it had once been a 
 
THEIR EXTENT. 157 
 
 river, which, while raging down to the sea with all 
 its curling rapids and whirling eddies, had been 
 arrested in an 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 ob- 
 serve 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 110 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, 
 
158 THE FIRST ICEBERG. 
 
 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 main- 
 tains 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 
 
RISK AMONG ICEBERGS. 159 ~ 
 
 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 leafct 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 
 
160 REMARKS OF DR. KANE I 
 
 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 mag- 
 nitude resembled a church. It broke into thou- 
 sands 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 break- 
 ing." 
 
 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 compara- 
 tively 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 
 
ON THE ORIGIN OF ICEBERGS. 161 
 
 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, char- 
 acteristic of all those arctic glaciers which issue 
 from central reservoirs, or mers de glace, upon the 
 fiords 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 
 
 (451) 1 1 
 
1G2 BENEFITS OF ICEBERGS. 
 
 communicated, and from which it issued, was an 
 unsurveyed mer de glace, or sea of ice, of appa- 
 rently boundless dimensions ; and from one part of 
 this great cliff he saw long lines of huge bergs float- 
 ing 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 some- 
 times sufficient to cause a rent, which in its turn 
 will induce other rents and fallings 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. Never- 
 theless 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 
 
M'CLURE'S EXPERIENCE. 
 
 163 
 
 under the lee of a good sound iceberg, where she 
 has lain as safely, for the time being, as if in a 
 harbour. 
 
 PROTECTED BY AN ICEBERG. 
 
 When Captain M'Clure was endeavouring to 
 make the north-west passage in 1851, he was saved, 
 from what appeared to be at least very probable 
 
164 A FRIEND IN NEED. 
 
 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. For- 
 tunately there was but young ice upon the opposite 
 side, which yielded to the pressure ; had it other- 
 wise 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 M'Clure'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 lat. 70 50' north, long. 117 55' west, 
 on the 30th September; during which circumnavi- 
 gation 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 
 
THE WORLD'S REFRIGERATORS. 
 
 165 
 
 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; temper- 
 ing 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 XI. 
 
 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. 
 
 IHERE 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 dif- 
 ferent in their nature from the geological formations 
 of the districts in which they are found. " Whence 
 
OF THE ORIGIN OF BOULDERS. 1G7 
 
 came these 1 " has been the question of the inquisitive 
 of all ages, " and how came they there 1 " 
 
 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 moun- 
 tains 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 dis- 
 coveries of the celebrated arctic voyager, Dr. Kane 
 of the American Navy. 
 
 While wintering far beyond the head of Baffin's 
 
168 BOULDERS: 
 
 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 interest- 
 ing 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 com- 
 pletely 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." 
 
ItOW 
 
 16 ( J 
 
 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 
 
170 MATTER FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 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. JE 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, per- 
 chance, it was carried thither by the ocean, count- 
 less ages ago, from the arctic regions, on a gigantic 
 raft of ice; after having been, at a still more remote 
 
CAUSE OF COLD IN ARCTIC REGIONS. 171 
 
 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 GREAT EGG-SHAPED ROOK. 
 
 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. But 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 dark- 
 ness, 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 ap- 
 proach the poles. The long daylight in summer is 
 exceedingly delightful. We once saw the sun de- 
 
172 SUMMER DAY AND WINTER NIGHT. 
 
 scribe 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 from the eyes. Noonday and mid- 
 night 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 
 
EXTREME DARKNESS. 173 
 
 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 jour- 
 nal 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 New- 
 foundland 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 above zero in-doors and 50 be- 
 low 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 alto- 
 gether 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, 
 
174 INTENSE COLD: 
 
 the moon frequently shines therewith 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 1 4 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 cornmim- 
 ings of hearts in lands that are far away." 
 
 Buttdespite 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 noon- 
 day " without a light," as being matter for gratula- 
 tion. 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 below zero, or 107 degrees of frost, on Fahren- 
 heit's scale. The thermometers of arctic explorers 
 are always filled with spirits of wine, as quicksilver 
 freezes at about 40 below zero, and is therefore un- 
 suitable. 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 
 
ITS INFLUENCE ON THE OCEAN. 175 
 
 exhibited a granular pellicle on its surface. Spirits 
 of naphtha froze at 54 below zero, and oil of sassa- 
 fras at 49. The oil of winter-green was in a floc- 
 culent state at 56, and solid at 63. 
 
 "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 pun- 
 gency 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 tempera- 
 ture 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 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 XII. 
 
 QUESTION OF AN OPEN SEA BOUND THE POLES UPPER AND UNDEB 
 
 CURRENTS OF THE OCEAN CAUSE THEREOF HABITS OP THE 
 WHALE AS BEARING ON THE QUESTION DR. KANE'S DISCOVERY 
 OF AN OPEN SEA IN THE FAR NORTH NOTES ON THE EXPEDI- 
 TION 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 philo- 
 sophic 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. 
 
UPPER AND UNDER CURRENTS OF OCEAN. 177 
 
 There is an under-current setting from the At- 
 lantic, northward through Davis' Straits, into the 
 Arctic Ocean, and a surface-current setting out. 
 The fact is proved beyond a doubt by the observa- 
 tions 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 under- 
 current 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 sur- 
 face-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 under- 
 neath 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 
 
 (451) 12 
 
178 THEORY OF AN OPEN POLAR SEA. 
 
 sink. Dining 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 thence- 
 forth 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 be- 
 come 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 ob- 
 served, 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. 
 
HABITS OF THE WHALE. 179 
 
 So much for theory. Now for facts that have been 
 observed, and that tend, more or less, to corrobo- 
 rate 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 
 e 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, &c., 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 Green- 
 land 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 an- 
 other 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 men- 
 
180 NOTES OF KANE'S EXPEDITION. 
 
 tions 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 supposi- 
 tion 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 oi 
 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 110 means of ex- 
 ploring it, or extending their investigations. The 
 account of this discovery is so interesting, and 
 withal so romantic, that we extract a few para- 
 graphs 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 
 
A REGION OF ICEBERGS. 181 
 
 north of their position. After twelve days' travel- 
 ling 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 men- 
 tion 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 
 
182 IN DANGER. 
 
 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. Follow- 
 ing 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 ad- 
 vancing many miles they were arrested by broad 
 rents in the ice, and were obliged to diverge fre- 
 quently 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." Pro- 
 ceeding 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 chan- 
 nel ; 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 
 
OPEN WATER SIGHTED. 183 
 
 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 de- 
 clared, that but for the birds which were seen fly- 
 ing 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 pre- 
 sented 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 accom- 
 plished, however, they were safe, and could advance 
 with confidence. But this mass of land-ice be- 
 came narrower as they proceeded, till at last it 
 dwindled to a mere narrow ledge, clinging to the 
 
184: DEEP AND CLEAR. 
 
 high, perpendicular cliffs, and looking as if at any 
 moment it might crumble off, and fall with them in- 
 to the open water between it and the floating sea-ice. 
 
 MORTON CLIMBING ON TO THE LAND-ICK. 
 
 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 
 
A LIVELY SCENE. 185 
 
 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 noth- 
 ing but open water, with innumerable wild sea- 
 birds of every description flying overhead, or 
 disporting in the pools. Let it be 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. 
 
186 A BEAR-HUNT. 
 
 At last they came to a place where the broken 
 ice of the shore rendered passage for the sledge im- 
 possible. 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 re- 
 joined the two men in about an hour after. This, 
 as it turned out, was rather a fortunate circum- 
 stance. 
 
 Preparatory to quitting their sledge, the men 
 had loaded themselves with eight pounds of pern mi- 
 can and two of biscuit, besides the artificial 
 horizon, sextant, and compass, a rifle, and a boat- 
 hook. 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 apologize 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 
 
A BEAR-HUNT. 187 
 
 her aid, and would not go on without it. Some- 
 times 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 wind- 
 mill. If she missed her aim, not daring to pursue 
 one dog lest the others should harm the cub, she 
 
188 A BEAR-HUNT. 
 
 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, tor- 
 menting 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 to- 
 wards 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." 
 
MORTON DISCOVERS THE OPEN SEA. 
 
A GRAND SIGHT. 191 
 
 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 re- 
 turn. 
 
 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 per- 
 petually fluid state round the pole, encircled by a 
 ring of ice that has hitherto presented an impene- 
 trable 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 
 rc yriads of water-fowl of various kinds. 
 
 u The "Brent goose," writes the Doctor, " had not 
 
192 A PICTURE OF LIFE. 
 
 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 
 kitti wakes 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- 
 
NOVEL MUSIC. 193 
 
 frequented by the whale and the larger representa- 
 tives 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 inter- 
 vened between the brig and that mysterious sea 
 been removed, as, perchance, it is sometimes re- 
 moved by a hot summer, Dr. Kane might have 
 been the first to reach the North Pole. This, how- 
 ever, 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 ad- 
 venturous keel may be ploughing the waters of the 
 hitherto untraversed and mysterious polar sea. 
 
 (451) 13 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA OF THE POLAR SEAS AND REGIONS 
 THE AURORA BOREALIS ICE-BLINK OPTICAL ILLUSIONS 
 ANECDOTE OF SCORESBY HALOS CORONA MOCK SUNS 
 REFRACTION FROSTS. 
 
 j| WING to the intensity of the cold in the 
 arctic regions, there are, as we may readily 
 believe, many singular appearances con- 
 nected 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 beam in 
 our own heavens are not to be compared to the 
 
THE AURORA BOREALIS. 
 
 195 
 
 brilliancy of the spectacle that is occasionally pre- 
 sented 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 
 
 
 AURORA BOREALIS. 
 
 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 
 
196 THE AURORA BOREALIS. 
 
 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 suf- 
 fused 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, some- 
 what 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 ; 
 
SINGULAR ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENON. 197 
 
 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, pro- 
 duces a cold atmosphere; another part being free 
 from ice, produces a warmer atmosphere. Refrac- 
 tion is the result of viewing objects through those 
 different media, and very curious appearances follow. 
 When Scoresby was in Greenland a singular atmos- 
 pheric 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 
 
198 THE ICE-BLINK. 
 
 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. Appear- 
 ances 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 com- 
 paring notes with my father, I found that our rela- 
 tive positions at the time gave our distance from one 
 another very nearly thirty miles, being about seven- 
 teen miles beyond the horizon, and some leagues 
 beyond the line of direct vision." 
 
 Scoresby was, perhaps, one of the most persever- 
 ing and intelligent observers of nature that ever 
 went to the polar seas. His various accounts of 
 
THE CORON^E. 199 
 
 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 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-gray streaks. 
 The field we found to be a sheet of ice 150 miles in 
 circumference !" 
 
 Another very singular appearance observed occa- 
 sionally in foggy weather is a series of bright circles, 
 or coronse, 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 par- 
 ticular case of this kind, Scoresby says : 
 
 "During the month of July 1820, the weather 
 
200 CAUSE OF THE CORONA. 
 
 being often foggy, with a bright sun sometimes 
 shining at the height of the day, some extraordinary 
 coronse 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 ex- 
 terior 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-gray 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, &c. 
 The colours of the whole three coronse 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 
 coronse I observed my own shadow, the head sur- 
 rounded by a glory. All the coronse were evidently 
 produced by the fog ; my shadow was impressed 011 
 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 coronse occur, in a great measure appears 
 to consist." 
 
MOCK SUNS. 
 
 201 
 
 Mock suns, or pwrlwlia,, 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 ! 
 
 MOCK SUNS. 
 
 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 
 
202 REFRACTION. 
 
 which was the sun itself. This magnificent spec- 
 tacle 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 eii- 
 
EFFECTS OF FROST. 203 
 
 hanced by the formation of innumerable minute 
 crystals which sparkle literally with as much lus- 
 trous beauty as the diamond. On one occasion 
 Scoresby's ship was decorated with uncommon mag- 
 nificence, 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 spiculse or rays, discover- 
 able 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 became 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 
 
204 GORGEOUS SPECTACLES. 
 
 of such a^ galaxy of curious, and bright, and emi- 
 nently beautiful combinations as are sometimes dis- 
 played in the arctic regions. None of the fabulous 
 conceptions of man, even though profoundly elabo- 
 rated 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 rain- 
 bow's delicate hues are allowed to intermingle 
 enough of pink, yellow, purple, orange, and green 
 
TWO SIDES TO EVERY PICTURE. 205 
 
 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 succes- 
 sion 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 subject 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 XIV. 
 
 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE SEA MEDUSA FOOD OF THE WHALE PHOS- 
 PHORIC LIGHT CAUSE THEREOF LUMINOSITY OF THE OCEAN. 
 
 EFERE1STCE 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 
 
ANIMAL LIFE IN THE SEA. 207 
 
 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 sinallness 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 mysteri- 
 ously metaphysical question infinitesimal divisi- 
 bility ; 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 
 
208 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE SEA. 
 
 the Creator to limit our powers, yet it lias 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 ex- 
 tend 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 commence- 
 ment, 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 com- 
 prehension 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 
 
MEDUSJ3 : THETR APPEARANCE. 209 
 
 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 examin- 
 ing these substances with a compound microscope, 
 I was enabled to make the following observa- 
 tions : 
 
 " The semi-transparent globules appeared to con- 
 sist 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 
 
210 MEDUSA : THEIR NUMBER. 
 
 beautifully moiiiliforai. Whether they were living 
 animals, and possessed of locomotion, I could not 
 ascertain. They possessed the property of decom- 
 posing 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 ; ;% 
 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 sub- 
 stances occupy the whole depth is uncertain. Pro- 
 vided, however, the depth to which they extend be 
 but two hundred and fifty fathoms, the above im- 
 mense number of one species may occur in the space 
 of two miles square. It may give a better concep- 
 tion of the amount of medusae in this extent, if we 
 calculate the length of time that would be requisite, 
 
MEDUSAE: THEIR MOTIONS. 211 
 
 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 im- 
 mensity 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 medusa?, 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, spin- 
 ning round with considerable celerity, gave great in- 
 terest and liveliness to the examination. But the 
 progressive motion of the most active, however dis- 
 tinct and rapid it might appear under a high magni- 
 fying 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 exceed- 
 ing minuteness, are circumstances, discovered in the 
 examination of these animalcules, of uncommon in- 
 terest. 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 mi- 
 
212 MEDUSA: MINUTE AND PHOSPHORESCENT. 
 
 crometer 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 m^e 
 than twenty-six thousand animals living, obtain- 
 ing 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 re- 
 splendent brilliancy. We see this light oftentimes 
 on our own coasts. It is usually of a pale bluish- 
 white colour, more or less intense, apparently, ac- 
 cording 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. 
 
LUMINOSITY OF THE SEA. 213 
 
 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 undula- 
 tion 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 be- 
 ing redipped resembled the most beautiful diamonds. 
 
 Mr. P. H. Gosse, in his interesting work, "The 
 Ocean," gives the following account of this lumi- 
 nosity of the sea, as witnessed by himself on one 
 occasion : 
 
 "In a voyage to the Grulf of Mexico, I saw the 
 water in those seas more splendidly luminous than 
 I had ever observed before. It was indeed a mag- 
 nificent 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, stud- 
 ded with those innumerable sparkles of blue light. 
 The nebulosity instantly separated into small masses, 
 curdled like clouds of marbles, leaving the water be- 
 tween 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, would 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 
 
214 
 
 LUMINOSITY OF THE SEA. 
 
 and masses, and its quick subsidence, were what I 
 had never before observed elsewhere." 
 
 PHOSPHORESCENT SEA. 
 
 Many scientific travellers have carefully examined 
 this subject, and we believe that all agree in refer- 
 ring this beautiful appearance to the medusae. One 
 gentleman drew a bucketful of water from the sea 
 
LUMINOSITY OF THE SEA. 
 
 215 
 
 while it was in this condition, and found, on ex- 
 amining 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 sud- 
 denly disappearing. When the bucket was sharply 
 struck on the outside, there would appear at once a 
 great number of these luminous bodies, which re- 
 tained their brilliant appearance for a few seconds, 
 and then all was dark again. They evidently ap- 
 peared 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 re- 
 moving 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 express- 
 ing our difference of opinion in regard to the power 
 of the medusae to emit their light " at will." 
 
216 LUMINOSITY OF THE SEA. 
 
 It seems much more probable that the light is the 
 result of passion and action. When a man's feel- 
 ings are strongly roused, whether pleasurably or 
 otherwise, he usually starts into action under a sud- 
 den 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 im- 
 pulse 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 ani- 
 malcule, 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 
 
LUMINOSITY OF THE SEA. 217 
 
 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 frolic- 
 some 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 sup- 
 ported 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 ! 
 
218 LUMINOSITY OF THE SEA. 
 
 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 XV. 
 
 CORAL INSECTS AND CORAL ISLANDS POLYNESIA OPERATIONS OF 
 THE CORAL INSECT GROWTH OF CORAL REEFS. 
 
 JjANY 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. 
 
220 CORAL ISLANDS. 
 
 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 sub- 
 marine 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 stop- 
 page. 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 por- 
 tions of coral, which are tossed upon the reef, and 
 pulverized into fine sand. This goes on increasing 
 until the island rises a little above the waves. 
 When this happens, birds alight there ; sea-drift 
 

 
 
CORAL ISLANDS I THEIR FORMATION. 223 
 
 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 nourishing 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 I 
 abroad its numerous feelers, 
 so that it resembles a beauti- 
 ful little star, moves these 
 about as if enjoying itself 
 though, doubtless, it is actu- CORAL INSECT - 
 ally engaged in the process of manufacturing its 
 little atom of coral rock. 
 
 It is extremely interesting to think of the im- 
 mense power of union thus exhibited. Singly, 
 those little creatures could not produce a sufficient 
 result to attract the attention of any creature save 
 
224 THE CORAL INSECT. 
 
 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 brain- 
 stones. 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 
 
GROWTH OF CORAL. 
 
 225 
 
 BRANCHING CORAL. 
 
 can be no doubt that some localities and positions 
 are more favourable to the growth of coral than 
 others. t)r. Allan, while at Madagascar, made 
 several experiments to test this. He selected seve- 
 ral 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 
 
 (4510 15 
 
226 
 
 GROWTH OF CORAL. 
 
 
 
 BRAIN-STONE CORAL. 
 
 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 be- 
 comes habitable by man. Among the first plants 
 that raise their heads to the sea-breeze is the grace- 
 
THE COCOA-NUT PALM. 227 
 
 ful 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. Never- 
 theless, 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 luxu- 
 riant 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 well- 
 being of all the creatures on this earth. 
 
 There are other animals in the sea, besides me- 
 dusse, 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 spe- 
 cies which we have described are the best types of 
 the respective classes to which they belong. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 VOLCANIC ISLANDS OPINIONS OF THE ANCIENTS "ATLANTIS" 
 
 INSTANCE OF THE FORMATION OF A VOLCANIC ISLAND CON- 
 CLUSION. 
 
 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 011 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 
 
ATLANTIS. 229 
 
 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 Grades ; 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 con- 
 tent 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 asserts4hat 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 
 
230 FORMATION OF A VOLCANIC ISLE. 
 
 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 Til- 
 lard, an ofticer of the British Navy, who saw it 011 
 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 fol- 
 lows : 
 
 " 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 over- 
 topping 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 ascend- 
 
SINGULAR PHENOMENA. 
 
 231 
 
 SUBMARINE VOLCANO. 
 
 ing motion had nearly ceased, they broke into various 
 branches resembling a group of pines. These again 
 formed themselves into festoons of white feathery 
 
FORMATION OF A VOLCANIC ISLE. 
 
 smoke, in the most fanciful manner imaginable, in- 
 termixed with the finest particles of falling ashes ; 
 which at one time assumed the appearance of in- 
 numerable 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 ascend- 
 ing to an altitude much above the highest point to 
 which the ashes were projected, rolled off in large 
 masses of fleecy clouds, gradually expanding them- 
 selves before the wind, in a direction nearly hori- 
 zontal, and drawing Tip 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 observa- 
 tions 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 110 violent eruption 
 on, although the craters still emitted smoke. 
 
CONCLUSION. 233 
 
 He therefore landed, and, on reaching the largest 
 crater, found it to be full of boiling water, which over- 
 flowed '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 archi- 
 pelago. It sank into the ocean again, and disap- 
 peared 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 
 
 t 
 
 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 unin- 
 teresting. 
 
 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 know- 
 ledge, and a very secondary one compared with that 
 infinitely higher branch which treats of the work- 
 ings 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, 
 
234 CONCLUSION. 
 
 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 Al- 
 mighty'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 re- 
 spect 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 Cap- 
 tain 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. 
 
CONCLUSION. 235 
 
 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 (be- 
 sides 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 ter- 
 rible 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. 
 
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