Glossary of Terms
related to Arctic Expeditions.
 Bay-Ice - Ice newly formed upon the surface of the sea. The expression is, however, applied
                also  to ice a foot or two in thickness.
 
Bestet - The situation of a ship when closely surrounded by ice.
 
Bight - An indentation in a floe of ice, like a bay, by which name it is sometimes called.
 
Blink - A peculiar brightness in the atmosphere, often assuming an arch-like form. 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 broken up into small fragments.
 
Cache - Literally a hiding place. The places of deposit of provision in Arctic travel are so
             called.
 
Calf -  A mass of ice lying under a floe near its margin, and when disengaged from that
           position, rising with violence to the surface of the water. - see Tongue.
 
Crow's Nest. - A small circular house, like a cask, fixed at the masthead, in which the
                      look-out man sits, either to guide the ship through the ice, or to give notice of
                      whales.
 
Dock - In a floe may be a natural or artificial: the former being simply a small "bight," in
           which a ship is placed to secure her from the danger of external pressure; and the
            latter, a square space cut out with saws for similar purpose.
 
Field - A sheet of ice generally of great thickness, and of too great extent to be seen over
           from a ship's masthead.
 
Fiord - An abrupt opening in the coast-line admitting the sea.
 
Floe - The same as a field, except that its extent can be distinguished from the ship's
          masthead. A "bay-floe" is a floe of ice newly formed.
 
Floe-piece - An expression generally applied to small pices of floes, not more than a furlong
                   square.
 
Glacier - a mass of ice derived from the atmosphere, sometimes abutting the sea.
 
Hummock - A mass of ice rising to a consderable height above the general level of a floe,
                    and forming a part of it. Hummocks are originally raised by the pressure of
                    floes against each other.
 
Ice-anchore - A hook or grapnel adapted to take hold upon ice.
 
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 floating mass of ice detatched from a glacier.
 
Ice-foot - The Danish name of the limited ice-belt of the more southern coast.
 
Land-ice - Is ice attached  to the land, either in floes or in heavy grounded masses lying near
                 the shore.
 
 Lane of Water - A narrow channel among the masses of ice, through which a boat or a ship
                           may pass.
 
Lead - A channel through the ice. A ship is said to "take the right lead" when she follows a
           channel conducting her into a more navigatable sea, and vice versa.
 
Nipped - The situation of a ship when forcibly pressed by ice on both sides.
 
Pack - A large body of ice, consisting of  seperate masses, lying close together, and whose
           extent cannot be seen.
 
Pancake-ice - Newly-formed ice, assuming the pecliar conformation of numberless patches of
                     "sludge," and giving the surface of the sea the appearance of handsome
                      pavement.
 
Patch of Ice - The same as a pack, but of smaller dimensions.
 
Pemmican - Meat cured, pulverized, and mixed with fat, containing much nutriment in a
                    small compass.
 
Sailing-ice - Ice of which the masses are so much separated as to allow a ship to sail among
                   them.
 
Sludge - Ice of the consistence of thick honey, offering little impediment to a ship while in
              this state, but greatly favoring the formation of a "bay-floe."
 
Stream - A long and narrow, but generally continuous, collection of loose ice.
 
Tongue - A mass of ice projecting under water from an iceberg or floe, and generally
               distinguishable at a considerable depth of smooth water. It differs from a "calf" in
               being fixed to, or a part of, the larger body.
 
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.
 
Young-ice - Nearly the same as "bay-ice," but generally applied to ice more recently formed
                   than the latter.
source: Sargent, Epes: Arctic Adventure By Sea And Land. Boston:
Phillips,Sampson & Company, 1857,Technical Terms
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