Enormous Icebergs.

Mr. H. N. Burgess' experiences among the ice in 1892 and 1893, when published in the "Auckland Star," caused a lot of arguments about the size of 'bergs and the extent of ice-fields met in such circumstances and some of Mr. Burgess' estimates were frankly doubted. But this is a matter in which you won't get a careful sailor tripping. As many landsmen are aware the sailor can estimate to a nicety the distance he is from any seen point, and his sextant gives him a very good instrument for measuring heights once his distance from an object is known. Mr. Burgess is able to prove his figures quite easily by authenticated reports in the "Nautical Magazine" and the "Shipping Gazette" given by ships that had met the same ice that Mr. Burgess recorded in such an interesting manner. And their estimates agree within a very small margin. For instance the Curzon and the Loch Eck both fix the 1892 ice at 1000 feet. For the ice that was met in 1893 there are the figures of the Loch Torridon, Cutty Sark, Turakina, Brier Holme and Charles Racine. Three of them give 1000 feet, the same height as the Margaret Galbraith (Mr. Burgess' ship). The Torridon saw ice 1500 feet high. and the Turakina fell in with some 1200 feet high. Then as to the extent of some of the fields. The Cromdale, Strathdown, County of Edinborough, and the Curzon sighted the same field as the Margaret Galbraith, and they reported it to be about 400 to 500 miles in extent. In the publications mentioned there are many well-authenticated instances of 1000ft bergs and fields of an extent that might well make the landsman wonder.

the Margaret Galbraith came to grief in 1905. She sailed from the River Plate for England with a cargo of grain, and on leaving port she stranded and became a total loss on March 27.

Following are the passages made by the Margaret Galbraith to New Zealand:—

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