The Weekly Visitor

An Iceberg Full of Seals.-Here is a story of the sea, told by the Captain of a Norwegian barque, who came across an iceberg full of seals. The first iceberg was observed when in latitude 50 north, and longitude 45 east. The weather had been very foggy, and the vessel was moving along with short canvas, when suddenly a mountain of ice loomed up, and the barque drifted toward it. The berg was as clear as crystal, with the exception of a great dark mass in the centre, while from a cleft in the side a small column of vapor arose. When the vessel approached to within a reasonable distance of the berg, it was discovered that the black mass in the centre consisted of live seals. Without exaggeration, said the Captain, "there were between two and three hundred seals there. The berg was evidently hollow, and the water we could see the seals plunge into now and then, was the ocean. The wall of ice that separated us from the seals, appeared to be but a few feet thick, and I think it had only been there a short time. Very likely it formed after the seals were there, for it is not probable that they would have come up in such numbers from below and voluntarily made a place like that their home. They no doubt gathered there from different parts of a large floe, and had been floating around for months, unable to change their quarters." After sailing around the berg without finding an opening, they hove the barque to and laid off the iceberg as long as they dared, hoping it would split or crack in some manner to give them a chance to get at the seals, but nothing happened, and they had to sail away.