98 Dr Latta''s Observations on the 



The moist air retains its humidity as it passes over this warmer sea, but as 

 soon as it reaches the icefield, its caloric is abstracted, and its vapour dischar- 

 ged in the form of mist or snow ; or, if wafted to the land, it dissolves the 

 snow on the shore : but ere it reaches^the interior, it is refrigerated by the gelid 

 surface over which it has passed ; producing, as in the former case, much hoair- 

 frost and snow, by which the air is almost constantly obscured ; hence it is 

 evident the sun's heat can produce but little influence on the soil. 



On account of such a state, I could obtain but a very partial glance of the 

 interior ; yet shortly after I obtained a very satisfactory view from the sum- 

 mit of a hill of considerable elevation. During this excursion, I had the plea- 

 sure to be accompanied by Mr Scoresby himself. We landed some leagues far- 

 ther south than the scene of my investigation on the preceding visit, and 

 whilst the crew were flensing a whale found on the beach, we directed our 

 steps towards the most accessible mountain in the neighbourhood, from the 

 summit of which we enjoyed a sight of one of the wildest scenes the imagi- 

 nation can fancy. The sea breeze, which had formerly filled the atmosphere with 

 mist, had now died away, and all was cloudless and calm. The sea was 

 destitute of ice, as far as the eye could reach ; and, though the flats on the 

 shore and even the higher lands on the beach had lost their covering of snow, 

 still the interior was every where clothed with it. Such are incontrover- 

 tible facts, and clearly indicate, I think, that the warmth of the climate, 

 as well as the means by which that warmth is produced, are not in concordance 

 with Mr Scoresby's statement, since the summer heat seems insufficient for 

 the solution of the snow, even in the valleys. That such is the case seems to 

 be implied even in our author's own words. Arctic Regions, vol. i. page &4, 

 he says, " The valleys of Spitzbergen opening towards the coast, and termi- 

 Tiating in the back ground with a transverse chain of mountains, are chiefly 

 filled with everlasting ice. The inland valleys at all seasons present a smooth 

 and continued bed of snow ; in some places divided by considerable rivulets, but 

 in others exhibiting a pure unbroken surface for many leagues in extent.*^ Now, 

 if such a statement is correct, and doubtless it is, it is surely at variance with 

 the notion that there the circle of perpetual frost is 7791 feet high, or that 

 the air is so temperate, that all the snow is dissolved, even on the tops of 

 the mountains. Indeed, if such were the case, Mr Scoresby 's theory of the 

 formation of icebergs would be reduced to a mere chimera. Thus, vol. i. 

 p. 107, he says, " The time of the foundation, or first stratum of icebergs, being 

 frozen, is probably nearly coeval with the land on which they are lodged ; 

 their subsequent increase seems to have been produced by the congelation of 

 the sleet of summer 6y nutuirtn, and of the bed of snow annually accumulated 

 in winter, tvhich, being partly dissolved by the summer sun, becomes consolidated, 

 and on the decline of the summer heat, frozen into a new stratum of transpa- 

 rent ice. Snow, subjected by a gentle heat to a thawing process, is first con- 

 verted into large grains of ice, and these are united, and afterwards consoli- 

 dated, under particular ch*cumstances, by the water which filters through 

 among them. If, when this imperfectly congealed mass has got cooled down 

 below the freezing temperature, by an interval of cold weather, the sun break 

 out and operate on the upper surface, so as to dissolve it ; the water which 

 results, runs into the porous mass, progressively tills the cavities, and being 



