Ice field

“ June 30.—A small ‘ice-hole,’ and then a large ice-field were crossed, and as we were in the act of passing over a ‘lead’ filled with broken ice, it suddenly closed, and we had to draw our boats up again, and to wait till the ice should part asunder. The snow has become quite soft, and we find water at the bottom of a hole, and employ it for the first time for cooking. ”

“ If the ice-field rests on a steeply inclined surface, like a mountain slope, the movement becomes one-sided in conformity to the slope. If the surface, otherwise plane, be affected by valleys parallel to the direction of movement, the ice in the valleys will be deeper than that on the divides between them, and its movement stronger. In the valleys, therefore, the ice will advance farther than elsewhere before being melted, and the outline of the ice will become lobate, the lobes occupying the depressions. ”

“ These meadows, like all the rest, are one great field of ice a foot thick, to their utmost verge far up the hillsides and into the swamps, sloping upward there, without water under it, resting almost everywhere on the ground, a great undulating field of ice, rolling, prairie-like, the earth wearing this dry icy shield or armor, which shines in the sun. ”

“ But as ice it is no longer fixed and immovable. We need not stop to explain just how this ice-field moves, but the fact is that, though moving very slowly, it acts like a liquid body. It will steal away over any incline however small, down which water would flow. Like a river it fills the valleys leading down from the mountains. ”

“ Occasional glimpses unfold the polish, the colors, and the graceful winding of sea-shells. A strong current in connection with the wind forces us, I am glad to say, to a more safe and comfortable distance. The last ten minutes has given us a startling illustration of the dangers of which we have been forewarned: a crack like a field-piece was followed by the falling of ice, on the opposite side of the berg, attended with a sullen roar.
We round to, and take the breeze in our faces. The ice is up the wind, square before us, and we must after it by a tack or two. ”

“ In the assumed ice-field, there are the conditions for great pressure and for its continuous application. If the ice be capable of moving as a plastic body, the weight of the ice would induce gradual movement outward from the center of the field, so that the area surrounding the region where the snow accumulated would gradually be encroached upon by the spreading of the ice. Observation shows that this is what takes place in every snow-field of sufficient depth. Motion thus brought about is glacier motion, and ice thus moving is glacier ice. ”

“ An iceberg, or ice-mountain, is a large insulated peak of floating ice, or a glacier, occupying a ravine or valley, generally opening towards the sea in an arctic country.
2. A field is a sheet of ice, so extensive that its limits cannot be discerned from the ship’s mast-head.
3. A floe is similar to a field, but smaller, inasmuch as its extent can be seen. This term, however, is seldom applied to pieces of ice of less diameter than half-a-mile or a mile.
4. Drift-ice consists of pieces less than floes, of various shapes and magnitudes. ”

“ Water arising from the melting of the surface snow by the sun's heat, would percolate through the superficial layers of snow, and, freezing below, take the form of ice. 3. On standing, even without pressure or partial melting, snow appears to undergo changes of crystallization which render it more compact. In these and perhaps other ways, a snow-field becomes an ice-field, the snow being restricted to its surface. ”

“ But we must not stop to philosophize, for we are now just at the edge of the glacier, and need our wits about us, and eyes too, to keep a sharp lookout for dangerous places, and steady feet, and hands keeping a tight hold of our trusty alpenstocks. The Mer de Glace is just what its name implies—a Sea of Ice—and looks as if, when some wild torrent came tumbling through the awful pass, it had been suddenly stopped by the hand of the Almighty, and frozen as it stood. ”

“ The Usefulness of Snow.—Snow, as it is well known, is a great impediment to the inroads of frost into anything enveloped by it. A covering of snow on an ice field is a great impediment to the escape of heat from the water, as well as protecting the ice from the direct action of the cold air, and greatly retards the growth of the ice. It is essential to remove this snow as early as practicable, as the ice harvester has always in view a possible thaw or rain, and endeavors to secure his crop at the earliest practicable moment. ”

“ We are at the close of an Arctic summer and we may look for storms and a breaking up at any time. The ice is very rotten, and the ocean currents, which are holding this ice-field against some point of land or submarine mountain, may part it in twain at any time, and then we will be compelled to run for our lives. ”

“ But pushing a sleigh over the smooth ice is no very difficult work, and the load that it contained did not increase the labor in my estimation. Thus we soon approached that long ice-ridge which I have so frequently mentioned. Here I stopped, and began to seek a place which might afford a chance for crossing to the ice-field on the opposite side.
The huge ice-blocks gathered here, where the fields on either side were forced against one another, grinding and breaking up. Each piece was forced up, and, as the grinding process continued, the heap rose higher. ”

“ When it is to be removed by the field planer, the ice field is first laid out and plowed to the depth of the snow or sap ice to be removed. The snow ice planer follows the plowed grooves, cutting off the refuse ice.
Thickness of Ice.—Generally speaking, the ice is desired at an average thickness of fourteen inches; this being convenient for subsequent handling. In practice, the thickness of the ice, as it is stored or shipped from the water, varies with the exigencies of the season and the average thickness formed at the locality. ”

“ In mid-channel the pressure forces the ice to rafter, or ride, one field over the other, or the edges of the floes crumble as they come together, and pile up the huge ice-blocks in long ridges fifty or seventy-five feet high. Many of the ice-cakes are forced far under water. One who has seen a big drive of logs which filled the banks of a rapid93 river pile up and plunge under and ride over when some narrow rock gorge is reached can get a crude idea. ”

“ If it is deep it can be readily handled, by cutting holes through the ice, or tapping the ice field in a number of places; the water, being heavier than the ice, will sink and raise the ice, if it has opportunity of so doing. Tapping should have prompt attention, and the water removed without delay. Even if the water freezes on top, the ice is not of good quality and is not part of the ice below. It forms a layer which is attached to the old ice, but yet is not solidly a part of it, and gives trouble by splitting out in barring off. ”

“ Within this glacial field are yawning crevasses and great boulders shielding columns of ice from the summer sun; there are smaller rock fragments sunk in deep wells and pits beyond reach of sunlight; silvery streams of melted ice and snow, plunging from shallow channels into the deep roaring moulins or devil's cauldrons; and above are the lonely pinnacles of rock and ice. WILD LIFE ZONES Because elevations in the park rise from about 300 feet in the river valleys, four climatic zones are represented. ”

“ In our acceptance, there are aerial ice-fields that are remote from this earth; that break up, fragments grinding against one another, rolling in vapor and water, of different constituency in different regions, forming slowly as stratified hailstones—but that there are ice-fields near this earth, that break up into just such flat pieces of ice as cover any pond or river when ice of a pond or river is broken, and are sometimes soon precipitated to the earth, in this familiar flat formation. ”

“ Again, in approaching a field of ice or snow, the traveller invariably descries a belt of resplendent white immediately above the horizon. This is known as the “ice-blink,” and it reveals to the Arctic navigator beforehand the character of the ice he is approaching. At times, too, a range of icebergs, or of broken masses of ice, will be reflected in colossal shadows on the sky, with a strange and even weird effect. ”

“ We speedily crossed the little intervening glacier, or snow-field, and commenced to ascend diagonally the snow wall, but found the snow in such a dangerous condition, lying as it was loosely on the surface of ice, that from the fear of starting an avalanche we once more made our way back to the ridge which formed the continuation of the arête along which we had been climbing. ”

“ Now field ice is almost always covered with snow;191 and thus not only land as extensive as our existing continents, but immense tracts of sea in the frigid and temperate zones, might present a solid surface covered with snow, and reflecting the sun's rays for the greater part of the year. ”

“ In the Dog-days, the frost is so intense that a small icicle becomes in one day a huge mass of ice; but a cool day promptly brings a thaw, and the cave is looked upon as a barometer, not merely feeling, but also presaging, the changes of weather. The people of the neighbourhood, when employed in field-work, arrange their labour so that the mid-day meal may be taken near the cave, when they either ice the water they have brought with them, or drink the melted ice, which they consider very good for the stomach. ”

“ The fact is, then, that snow under the influence of pressure passes into the form of ice. In some cases nature does this on a large scale. Where mountains are sufficiently elevated to raise their heads above the snow line we know they are white all the year around with snow. What is not blown away, evaporated, or, as an avalanche, precipitated to lower heights, must accumulate from year to year. But the weight pressing on the lower portions of this snow-field must soon be considerable, and at length become so great, that the snow changes to the form of ice. ”

“ The subterranean forces produced underneath the ice great heaving waves which with a swirling roar threw up and tore loose great sections of ice, breaking them into small blocks and sucking them under the unbroken downstream field. ”

“ As they came to the open water, they found to their chagrin that other ice-fields had crowded in between them and their object, and they were obliged to make a wide and winding detour to approach it. Distance is always far greater than it looks to be in the Arctic, and they were fully an hour in getting near the motionless heap. ”

“ Fields may approximate each other from three causes: First, If the lighter ice be to windward, it will, of necessity, be impelled towards the heavier; secondly, As the wind frequently commences blowing on the windward side of the ice, and continues several hours before it is felt a few miles distant to leeward, the field begins to drift before the wind can produce any impression on ice, on its opposite side ”

“ In very hot and long summers, the ice-fields are denuded even in the higher regions, and then a much greater amount of blue-green glacier-ice glances down into the valley, many knobs and depressions are laid bare which one otherwise sees only covered with white, the muddy edge of the ice comes to view with its deposit of rocks, silt, and slime, and far greater volumes of water than usual rush into the valley. ”

“ The air is expelled from the water during freezing, if opportunity is found for it to do so. Unless this is done, the ice is cloudy. Agitation of the water assists the escape of the air; hence it is that ice from running streams is usually clearer and more brilliant than pond or lake ice. An outlet afforded to the land-locked ponds and lakes is often beneficial during ice-making weather. Too rapid a current, however, will retard growth, and a gentle motion diffused over the entire field produces the best results. ”

“ And then it was very quiet once more in the forest.
"It is very cold," said Barbara. "My hands and feet are like ice."
Then the pine-tree and the fir shook down the snow from their broad boughs, and the snow fell upon Barbara and covered her like a white mantle.
"You will be warm now," said the vine, kissing Barbara's forehead. And Barbara smiled.
Then the snowdrop sang a lullaby about the moss that loved the violet. And Barbara said, "I am going to sleep; will you wake me when the prince comes through the forest?" ”

“ Were this constant movement to cease, the result would be the formation of a sheet of ice of the [5] uniform thickness of about eight feet over the whole Polar region.
13. A layer of snow, which, like the ice itself, is at a minimum in autumn, covers the whole surface of all the ice-fields. This snow, which in winter is sometimes as hard as a rock, sometimes as fine as dust, takes, towards the end of summer, more and more the character of the glacier snow of our lofty Alpine ranges. Its grains, in a humid state, exceed the size of beans, and when in motion they make a rustling noise like sand. ”

“ This snow ice is white, being very porous and filled with air, and detracts from the quality of the crop, its thickness depending on the depth of snow on the field, amount of water, and the temperature. At the top of this snow ice, where it merges into the17 snow, will be found a stiff, crusty layer, more or less firmly united to the ice below, which adds to the difficulty of removing the snow on top. An inch or two of snow ice will lessen the loss by breakage of cakes, in stowing, and the ice also comes out of the house in better shape, and will stand shipping better. ”