Caew-i-Cheldolath

Berg Cradle is the largest of the three principal bays that punctuate the Cape of Forochel. Sheltered between the Minheldolath and Rast Losnaeth promontories, the bay is haven to innumerable icebergs, some of them delved by the Merimetsästäjät. The Berg Cradle is further sub-divided into three smaller bays. The westward arm of Berg Cradle is named Talven Satama, the Winter Harbor. In that season, the northward current of Belegaer drives into the Bay of Forochel, forcing the ice into this wide channel; in summer, the current is less strong, sweeping across the mouth of the bay and drawing the icebergs out of the lesser inlets to open water. The crumbling foothills of the Ered Rhívamar descend in ever lowering heights to the northern shores of the bay. The western shores are little more than boulder-strewn cliffs that eventually merge with the even lower hills of the Minheldolath. The great central arm of Berg Cradle Bay is a deep, narrow channel called Pitkävesi, the Longwater, which reaches northward almost to Evermist. Pitkävesi is home to some of the oldest berg-delvings of the Merimetsästäjät. Once a berg is forced into the narrow channel, it often becomes grounded in one of the shallower inlets along the eastern shores of the Pitkävesi. There the berg remains until an unusually high tide lifts it to resume its endless journey. The summer current of Belegaer is too weak to draw these bergs out of the narrow-mouthed channel, so it is primarily the early gales of autumn, before the bay freezes over, that force them out of the Pitkävesi and into the main gulf of the Berg Cradle. The shores of the Longwater are less rocky and more wooded than those of the rest of the bay. Stands and forests of hardy spruce or pine cover the great strip of land dividing the Pitkävesi from the Talven Satama. The northern end of the Longwater, nearest to the Elven sanctuary of Evermist, is heavily forested. To the east, this forest gradually gives way to the open Fire Tundra. The shores of the Pitkävesi are less rocky than those of the Talven Satama; but save for the far northern end, they are steep and difficult for those who travel by boat. The easternmost arm of Berg Cradle Bay is called Hûb Rochdol, Horsehead Bay, by the Elves of Evermist, because of the distinctive shape of its shoreline. The Jäämiehet and Merimetsästäjät, who have no experience with such animals, name it Venemiehen Satama, Boatman's Harbor. The bay offers excellent harborage for whaling vessels where its eastern shore (that portion which would be the horse's nose and mouth) provides a wide, pebbly beach and shallow water where boats are easily launched or landed. While subject to ice-floes and smaller bergs, Venemiehen Satama is too shallow in depth for the great bergs in which the Merimetsästäjät live. From summer to winter, Berg Cradle Bay is a study in contrasts. The warming of the weather in spring brings seals and walrus teeming to its shores. Great flocks of gulls and terns wheel and sweep above its emerald-green waters, bringing its shores to life with the nesting grounds and rookeries of the migrating birds. Eagles, falcons and hawks all prey upon these massive, shoreline flocks. By early summer, the bay is full of several types of whales, primarily the great humpback, but smaller species such as pilot, narwhal and killer whale all come to feed and breed in these northern waters. Summer also brings the snow bears to hunt seal and search for mates. The cooler autumn weather brings a dramatic change to the Berg Cradle. The numbers of birds lessens noticeably, and the once-crowded nesting areas are abandoned, parents and young alike having gone south. Whales, so numerous in the summer months, also begin their long voyage southwards to warmer waters off the coasts of Haradwaith, where they calf and raise their young. The seals, on the other hand, have yet to make their journey; and so long as they stay, so too do the killer whales. In winter, the bay freezes and the ice stretches from the middle of Rast Losnaeth to the midsection of Minheldolath. The frozen berg-delvings of the Merimetsästäjät then become immobile. Save for the stray snow bear or dragon, the ice-sheet is virtually deserted. Among the many Merimetsästäjä delvings that wander the waters of Berg Cradle Bay, the greatest are Menkylä, Talven Muurit and Pohjomen Tähti. The first two can usually be found in Talven Satama during winter and near the eastern coasts of Minheldolath during summer, with Merikylä maintaining a position somewhat north of Talven Muurit; both are accompanied by three minor bergs. Talven Muurit had a fourth satellite, but during a summer squall it was swept far out into the Bay of Forochel, borne away upon a wild current into unknown Belegaer. Through great effort, most of the people of this delving were saved, but a good deal of food-stores and belongings were lost. Pohjoinen Tähti, on the other hand, remains an almost permanent fixture in the northern waters of the Pitkävesi. The berg has no satellites and remains one of the oldest, continuously occupied delvings of the Merimetsästäjät.