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Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 396, 18 April 1871, Page 2

The Philadelphia Photographer contain* a very interesting article by Mr. Dunmore, the photographer, who accompanied a recent expedition to Greenland and its glaciers. He shows how icebergs are formed in tho mountains, and then gradually pushed into the sea, where they break into large pieces, float, and are carried away by currents and winds. He tell us that " the glaciers come moving slowly down from tho mountains, a great river of ice, thousands of feet deep, sometimes ton miles wide, to the fiord or bay at the foot of tho mountain. The Alpine glaciers roll down into the warm valleys, and there, warmed by the sun, melt away like a piece of wax before a candle, and form brooks and rivers. But in Greenland they cannot do this, it is too cold. Therefore, as the ice at the mouth of the glacier is pushed forward to the water's edge, it must break off in pieces and fall in ; and such pieces are icebergs. When they break off the glacier it is said by the natives 'to calve,' or the ' iceberg is born.' I can give you no idea of what a beautiful sight it is to see an iceberg break off; but we, who have seen it, will never forget it. Think of a mass of ice as big as the spaca of ground covered by a whole city falling into the sea, and of the tremendous crash that occurs when it breaks away from its fellows, and they give it a parting salute as they groan and growl their last farewell. Now, see the waves leap up forty feet, into the air, washing and lashing the glacier with spray, and sweeping everything away not strong enough to bear the shock ; then watch the new born berg as it rocks in the sea like a huge porpoise, up and down, dropping here and there portions of itself, which dive down and reappear in all directions, and you can imagine faintly what it is to see a glacier ' calve an iceberg.' It is a long time before the trouble of the water ends, or before the new-born babe ceases to be rocked, and is still enough to have its photograph taken." The iceberg referred to in this extract was two miles wide, and apparently hundreds of miles in length, with a depth varying from five to eight hundred feet. The photographer and his party clambered up its steep sides, travelled six miles along the top of it, ate their dinner, on it summit, and then returned to their vessel. A meeting of the Grammar School Commissioners was held yesterday for tho purpose of appointing an English master, a commercial master, aud a junior master. Mr. T. E. Wyatt was appointed to the first-named office. The Sc'cond was offered to Mr. Flower, and the third to Mr. Anderson, if they chose to accept them.

The Supreme Court is locked up for the vacation. The offices are, however, open till one o'clock daily. If it be the intention of the Government to do anything towards repairing the roof of the building, this would appear to be a favorable opportunity.