A TEMPEST IN THE POLAR REGIONS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1890, 16 August 1884, Page 3

A TEMPEST IN THE POLAR REGIONS.

It is impossible to form an idea of a tempest in the Polar Seas. The icebergs are like.floating rocks whirling along a rapid current. The huge crystal mountains dash against each other, backward and forward, burst with a roar like thunder, and returning to the charge until, losing their equilibrium, they tumble over into a cloud of spray, upheaving the icefields, which fall afterwards like the crack of a whip lash on the boiling sea. The sea-gulls fly away gcreaming, and often and often a black shining whale comes for an instant puffing to the surface. When the midnight sun grazes the surface, the floating •mountains and rocks seemed immersed wave of beautiful purple light. The flcold is by no means so insupportable as is , 'supposed. We passed from an heated cabin at 30deg above zero to 47deg below zero in the open air without inconvenience. A much higher degree becomes, •however, insufferable if there is wind. At 15 deg below zero a stream, as if from ['>'■'''& foiling kettle, rises from the water. '■-"-. VAnd once frozen hy the wind, it falls in : v/-;%tifine powder. The phenomenon is '•"•'. '- called sea smoke. At 40deg. the snow V' 4 'dktf# human bodies also smoke, which & ; ~^rnp'ke ( changes at once into millions of particles, like needles of ice, which make a light continuous the rustle of a stiff silk. At fe'C%^ n is temperature the, trunks of trees burst lQ«d report, the rocks break up, WMWa& the earth opens and vomits smoking |#@^^r-f;.-Knives break in cutting butter. Illiloearrgo out by contact with the ice on To, talk is fatiguing. At BHEKbMb'e eyelids arc covered with a crust must be carefully removed appears