the vicinity of laud is indispensable for its formation. This opinion is now considered erroneous, for however dependant the ice may have been on the land, from the time of its first appearance, to its gaining an ascendancy over the waves of the ocean, sufficient to resist their utmost ravages, and to arrest the progress of maritime discovery, at a distance perhaps from six hundred to a thousand miles from the Pole; it is now evident, that the proximity of land is not essential either for its existence, its formation, or its increase.

"The first appearance of ice whilst in the state of detached crystals, is called by the sailors sludge, and resembles snow when cast into water that is too cold to dissolve it. This smooths the ruffled sea, and produces an effect like oil in stilling the breaking surface. These crystals soon unite, and would form a continuous sheet, but, by the motion of the waves, they are broken into very small pieces, scarcely three inches in diameter, As they strengthen, many of them coalesce and form a larger mass, The undulations of the sea still continuing, these enlarged pieces strike each other on every side, whereby they become rounded, and their edges. turned up, whence they obtain the name of pancakes; several of these again unite, and thereby continue to increase, forming larger pancakes, until they become perhaps a foot in thickness, and many yards in circumference."

EDWARD. "I suppose the sea freezes quicker when it is calm and smooth, than when it is rough."

THE CAPTAIN.- "When the sea is perfectly smooth, the freezing process goes on more regularly, and perhaps more rapidly. The commencement is similar to that just described; it is afterwards continued by constant additions to its under surface. During twenty-four hours keen frost, it will have become two or three inches thick, and in less than forty-eight hours time, capable of sustaining the weight of a man. This is termed bay-ice, whilst that of older formation is distinguished into light and heavy ice; the former being from a foot to about a yard in thickness, and the latter from about a yard upwards.

"Fields of ice commonly make their appearance about the month of June, though sometimes earlier; they are frequently the resort of young whales; strong north and westerly winds expose them to the Greenlandmen, by driving off the loose ice. Some fields exhibit a perfect level plain, without a fissure or hummock, so clear indeed, that I imagine,

upon one which I saw, a coach might be driven a hundred miles in a direct line, without any obstruction Most com monly, however, the surface contains some hummocks *, which somewhat relieve the uniformity of intense light, by a tinge of delicate green, in cavities where the light gains admittance in an oblique direction, by passing through a portion of ice."

EDWARD. "Do not two of these fields sometimes meet ?". THE CAPTAIN." Yes: and their occasional rapid motion with the strange effects produced on any opposing substance, exhibited by such immense bodies, is one of the most striking objects this country (Greenland, I mean) presents, and is certainly the most terrific. They not unfrequently acquire rotatory movement, whereby their circuinference attains a velocity of several miles per hour. A field, thus in motion, coming in contact with another at rest, or more especially with a contrary direction of movement, produces a dreadful shock. The weaker field is crushed with an awful noise; sometimes the destruction is mutual pieces of huge dimensions and weight, are not unfrequently piled upon the top, to the height of twenty or thirty feet, whilst doubtless a proportionate quantity is depressed beneath. The view of those stupendous effects in safety, exhibits a picture sublimely grand; but where there is danger of being overwhelined, terror and dismay must be the predominant feelings.

"On arriving at the point of collision of two fields of ice, which had been driven together, I have discovered, that the two points had but recently met; that already a pro. digious mass of rubbish had been squeezed upon the top, and that the motion had not abated. The fields continued to overlay each other with a majestic motion, producing a noise resembling that of complicated machinery, or distant thunder. The pressure was so immense, that numerous fissures were occasioned; and the ice repeatedly rent beneath my feet. In one of the fissures, I found the snow on the level to be three and a half feet deep, and the ice upwards of twelve. In one place, hummocks had been thrown up to the height of twenty feet from the surface of the field, and at least twenty-five feet from the level of the water; they extended fifty or sixty yards in length, and fifteen in breadth, forming a mass of about two thousand tons in weight. The majestic unvaried

A hummock is a protuberance raised upon a plain of ice above the common level.

movement of the ice, the singular noise with which it was accompanied,—the tremendous power exerted, and the wonderful effects produced,-w -were calculated to excite sensations of novelty and grandeur, in the mind of even the most careless spectator!"

EDWARD.- "It must indeed be a most magnificent scene. Pray, sir, are the icebergs of any particular form?"

THE CAPTAΙΝ.- -"No: the term icebergs has commonly been applied to those immense bodies of ice, situated on the land, filling the valleys between the high mountains,” and generally exhibiting a square perpendicular front towards the sea.

Large pieces may be separated from those icebergs in the summer season, when they are particularly fragile, by their ponderous overhanging masses, overcoming the force of cohesion or otherwise, by the powerful expansion of the water, filling any excavation or deep-seated cavity, when its dimensions are enlarged by freezing, thereby exerting a tremendous force, and bursting the whole asunder.

"Pieces thus, or otherwise detached, are hurled into the sea with a dreadful crash; if they are received into deep water, they are liable to be drifted off the land, and, under the form of ice-islands, or ice-mountains, they likewise still retain their parent name of icebergs.

"These icebergs generated on the land between the mountains of the sea. coast, are consequently the product of snow or rain water. A considerable portion of these icebergs are formed in the deep-sheltered bays abounding on the east coast of Spitzbergen. These have their bed in the waters of the ocean, and are partly the product of sea-water, and partly that of snow and rain water. And it is highly probable that a continent of ice mountains may exist in regions near the Pole, yet unexplored, the nucleus of which may be as ancient as the earth itself, and its increase derived from the sea and atmosphere combined. The profusion of ice in the polar regions, produces peculiar and marked effects on the surrounding elements. The sea, in consequence, exhibits some interesting characters, and the atmosphere, some striking phenomena. Of these, the power the ice exerts on the wind,-on aqueous vapour,-on the colour of the sky, and on the temperature of the air, are the most prominent; and of those, accordingly as the ice or swell has the ascendancy, the results are varied and remarkable.

1. "When the wind blows forcibly across a solid pack or field of ice, its power is much diminished ere it traverses many miles: insomuch, that a storm will frequently blow for several hours on one side of a field, before it be perceptible on the other; and, while a storm prevails in open water, ships beset within sight, will not experience one-half of its severity. "It is not uncommon for the ice to produce the effect of repulsing and balancing an assailing wind. Thus, when a severe storm blows from the sea, directly towards the main body of ice, an opposite current will sometimes prevail on the borders of the ice; and such conflicting winds have been observed to counterpoise each other, a few furlongs distant from the ice, for several hours: the violence of the one, being, as it were, subdued by the frigorific repulsion and lesser force of the other. The effect resulting, is singular and manifest.

2. "The moist and temperate gale from the southward, becomes chilled on con nixture with the northern breeze, and discharges its surplus humidity in the thickest snow. As the quantity of the snow depends considerably on the difference of temperature of the two assimilating streams of air, it follows, that the largest proportion must be precipitated on the exterior of the main body of ice, where the contrast of temperature is the greatest: and since that contrast must be gradually diminished, as the air passes over the gelid surface of the ice, much of its superabundant moisture must generally be discharged before it reaches the interior. Hence, we can account for the fewness of the clouds,--the consequent brightness of the atmosphere, and the rareness of storms, in situations far immured among the northern ice.

"Among the curious phenomena of these northern regions, I must not omit the ice-blink.

"On approaching a pack*, field, or other compact aggregation of ice, the phenomenon of the ice-blink is seen whenever the horizon is tolerably free from clouds, and in some cases even under a thick sky. The ice-blink consists in a stratum of a lucid whiteness, which appears in that part of the atmosphere next the horizon. It is evidently occasioned thus: those rays of light which strike on the snowy surface of the ice, are reflected into the superincumbent air, where they

* A number of pieces of ice closely connected together, so that they cannot, from the top of a ship's must be seen over, is called a pack.

become visible; but the light which falls on the sea is in a great measure absorbed, and the superincumbent air retains its native ethereal hue. Hence, when the ice blink occurs under the most favourable circumstances, it affords to the eye a beautiful and perfect map of the ice, twenty or thirty miles beyond the limit of direct vision, but less distinct in proportion as the air is hazy. The ice-blink not only shews the figure of the ice, but enables the experienced observer to judge, whether the ice thus pictured be field or packed ice; if the latter, whether it be compact or open, bay or heavy ice. Field ice affords the most lucid blink, accompanied with a tinge of yellow; that of packs is more purely white; and of bay-ice, greyish. The land, on account of its snowy covering, likewise occasions a blink, which is yellowish, and not much unlike that produced by the ice of fields.

"The ice operates as a powerful equaliser of temperature. In the 80th degree of north latitude, at the edge of the main body of ice, with a northerly gale of wind, the cold is not sensibly greater than in the 70th degree, under similar circum

stances.

"The reciprocal action of the ice and the sea on each other, is particularly striking, whichever may have the ascendancy. If, on the one hand, the ice be arranged with a certain form of aggregation, and in due solidity, it becomes Capable of visting the turbulence of the ocean, and can, with but little comparative diminution or breaking, suppicos its most violent surges. Its resistance is so effectual, that ships sheltered by it, rarely find the sea disturbed by swells. On the other hand, the most formidable fields yield to the slightest grown swell, and become disrupted into thousands of pieces; and ice of only a few weeks growth, on being assailed by a turbulent sea, is broken and annihilated with incredible celerity. Ice, which for weeks has been an increasing pest to the whale fisher, is sometimes removed in the space of a few hours. The destruction is in many cases so rapid, that to an inexperienced observer, the occurrence seems incredible, and rather an illusion of fancy, than a matter of fact. Suppose a ship immoveably fixed in bay ice, and not the smallest opening to be seen: after a lapse of time sufficient only for a moderate repose, imagine a person rising from his bed,-when, behold, the insurmountable obstacle has vanished! Instead of a sheet of ice expanding unbroken to the verge of the horizon on every side, an undulating sea re