Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/20

16 end of which a gleam of sunshine revealed a huge shadowy iceberg—brilliantly white. Sailing on we came nearer to the berg, which was several miles off when we first sighted it, and found it to be a mass of ice which probably rose fully a hundred feet out of the water and was about half a mile long. The top of it looked as flat as a billiard table, and the sides were vertical white cliffs; some cracks, mostly vertical and lenticular, were strongly defined, because in them was to be seen the most brilliant and intense blue one can imagine. At the water-line the ice cliff was worn by the lashing of the relatively warm waves (32.3° F.), and here and there were caves at sea-level where green intermingled with intense blue. Into these caves the water rushed with a resounding roar, until each cave was a seething cauldron, and in some cases the spray from these caves rose high into the air. The sea was literally swarming with Cape pigeons and blue petrels, while great finner whales played and spouted in the vicinity of the ship. The Cape pigeons were so numerous that, on putting a small piece of fat over the side of the ship, one could catch them quite easily with an angler's landing-net. The silk tow-net showed that the water was swarming with a small shrimplike creature called Euphausia, several species of smaller crustacea,