EXPLANATION OF TERMS
Bay-ice, or young ice, is that which is newly formed on the sea, and consists of two kinds, common bay-ice and pancake ice; the former occurring in smooth, extensive sheets, and the latter in small, circular pieces, with raised edges.
Beset the situation of a ship when closely surrounded by ice.
A bight is a bay in the outline of the ice.
Blink. A peculiar brightness of the atmosphere, often assuming an archlike form, which is generally perceptible over ice or land covered with snow. The blink of land, as well as that over large quantities of ice, is usually of a yellowish cast.
Bore. The operation of “boring” through loose ice consists in entering it under a press of sail, and forcing the ship through by separating the masses.
Brash-ice is still smaller than drift-ice, and may be considered as the wreck of other kinds of ice.
Cache. Literally a hiding-place. The places of deposit of provisions in Arctic travel are so called.
A calf is a portion of ice which has been depressed by the same means as a hummock is elevated. It is kept down by some larger mass, from beneath which it shows itself on one side.
Drift-ice consists of pieces less than floes, of various shapes and magnitudes.
Field-ice, or a field of ice, “is a sheet of ice so extensive that its limits cannot be discerned from the masthead of the ship.”
Fiord. An abrupt opening in the coastline, admitting the sea.
A floe is similar to a field, but smaller, inasmuch as its extent can be seen.
Glacier. A mass of ice derived from the atmosphere, sometimes abutting on the sea.
Heavy and light are terms attached to ice, distinguishable of its thickness.
A hummock is a protuberance raised upon any plane of ice above the common level. It is frequently produced by pressure, where one piece is squeezed upon another, often set upon its edge, and in that position cemented by the frost. Hummocks are likewise formed by pieces of ice mutually crushing each other, the wreck being heaped upon one or both of them. To hummocks, principally, the ice is indebted for its variety of fanciful shapes and its picturesque appearance. They occur in great numbers in heavy packs, on the edges, and occasionally in the middle of fields and floes, where they often attain the height of thirty feet and upwards.
Ice-belt. A continued margin of ice, which, in high northern latitudes, adheres to the coast above the ordinary level of the sea.
Iceberg. A large mass of solid ice, generally of great height, breadth, and thickness.
Ice-foot. Ice attached to the land, either in floes or in heavy grounded masses lying near the shore.
Ice-hook. A small ice-anchor.
A lane or vein is a narrow channel of water in packs or other collections of ice.
A lead is an opening, large or small, through the ice, in which a vessel can be able to make some progress either by sailing, tracking, or towing.
Nipped. The situation of a ship when forcibly pressed by ice on both sides.
Open-ice, or sailing-ice, is where the pieces are so separated as to admit of a ship sailing conveniently among them.
A pack is a body of drift-ice, of such magnitude that its extent is not discernible. A pack is open when the pieces of ice, though very near each other, do not generally touch, or closed when the pieces are in complete contact.
A patch is a collection of drift or bay-ice of a circular or polygonal form. In point of magnitude, a pack corresponds with a field, and a patch with a floe.
Pemmican. Meat cured, pulverized, and mixed with fat, containing much nutriment in a small compass.
Rue-raddy. A shoulder-belt to drag by.
Sconce pieces are broken floes of a diameter less than half a mile; and, occasionally, not above a hundred or a few hundred feet.
Sludge consists of a stratum of detached ice crystals, or of snow, or of the smaller fragments of brash-ice, floating on the surface of the sea.
A stream is an oblong collection of drift or bay-ice, the pieces of which are continuous. It is called a sea-stream when it is exposed on one side to the ocean, and affords shelter from the sea to whatever is within it.
Land-ice consists of drift-ice attached to the shore; or drift-ice which, by being covered with mud or gravel, appears to have recently been in contact with the shore; or the flat ice resting on the land, not having the appearance or elevation of icebergs.
Tide-hole. A well sunk in the ice for the purpose of observing tides.
A tongue is a point of ice projecting nearly horizontally from a part that is under water. Ships have sometimes run aground upon tongues of ice.
Tracking. Towing along a margin of ice.
Water-sky. A dark appearance in the sky, indicating “clear water” in that direction, and forming a striking contrast with the “blink” over land or ice.