624^ Supposed Connection of Meteoric Phenomena^ 



saw sea birds, whales, and storm petrels, the usual attendants 

 on ice. 



Mr. Scoresby {Arctic Regions) is the principal authority 

 respecting the season when the " barrier of ice" first broke 

 away, and afforded materials for the encumbering of the 

 Atlantic with the masses which, we see from the above ac- 

 count, have, since 1816, been met with by vessels sailing to 

 the westward. He particularises the following seasons : — 

 1803, open^ weather tempestuous, wind n. e. ; 1804-, close; 

 1805, as usual; 1806 and 1807, close, wind n. e.; 1808, 

 nearly open; 1809, close; 1810, as 1804; 1811, uncom- 

 monly close; 1812, more si^igularly close, most formidable 

 season [the year of Bonaparte's retreat from Moscow]; 

 1813, open, uncommonly tempestuous, wind e. ; 1814, open, 

 wind s. and w. ; 1815, open; 1816, partially open; 1817, 

 especially open ; the coast east of Greenland seen for the first 

 time since 1607; 1818, less open, but more so than usual. 

 {Scoresby^ i. 276., and § vii. 284.) " In these two seasons of 

 1817 and 1818, the sea was more open than on any former 

 occasion remembered by the oldest fishermen ; an extent of 

 sea amounting to about 2000 square leagues of surface, in- 

 cluded between the parallels of 74° and 80° N., being quite 

 void of ice, which is usually covered by it." (Scoresby, Arctic 

 Regions, i. 284. See also Quarterly Review, viii. 203.) The 

 map of the ice appended to Mr. Scoresby's narrative shows 

 distinctly the extent of the change thus produced, and is very 

 instructive. 



Since the years above named, the Atlantic has never been 

 entirely free from ice ; but there have been periods, when 

 the cold has been particularly severe, and the ice in both 

 hemispheres has been especially disturbed.* From 1826 to 

 1828, ice was found floating off the Cape of Good Hope as 

 low as 39° to 36° s. lat. ; and, on April 20. 1828, the Eliza, 

 from Antwerp to Batavia, met with five icebergs in 37° 31' s., 

 and 18° 17' e., against which the sea broke violently. (Hors- 

 burg, P. T. 1828.) From 1827 to 1829, the coasts of La- 

 brador and Greenland were more encumbered with ice and 

 snow than before known, f In April, 1825, also, immense 

 icebergs were met with, three days' sail from Newfoundland. 



The cause of the disruption of the ice from the polar seas 

 is, by the Quarterly Reviewer, said to be " its own weight ; " 

 and he states, as a singular coincidence, that the needle became 



* Capt. Parry saw the first iceberg, in 1824, on June 16., in 60-75° lat., 

 55° long. 



f The winter of 1828 commenced at Fahlun, in Sweden, by so great a 

 fall of snow, in the end of September, that commerce was interrupted. 

 {Hamburgh Journal^ Oct. 6. 1828.) 



