Captain Parry's Intended Expedition to the North Pole. 9S 



— amidst a scene like this (and many such there are), heedless 

 of the frowns of huge adjacent icebergs, which diffuse winter 

 around, and often fill the atmosphere with clouds, despite the 

 conviction that, in inland scenes, valleys are filled, and hills bu- 

 ried, with never-melting snow, we would be disposed to esteem 

 the climate mild, and extend the same character to regions still 

 more remote. The impression formed by such Elysian mild- 

 ness may have divested the ingenious Mr Scoresby of his accus- 

 tomed acuteness, whilst treating of the " Climate of Spitzbergen," 

 in his " Account of the Arctic Regions ;"" for, biassed by the in- 

 dications of the thermometer, he reasons himself into the suppo- 

 sition, that the climate, during summer, is more temperate than 

 even in Scotland, and gives to the circle of perpetual congela- 

 tion, an altitude of 7791 feet, — a statement contradicted by facts. 



2. Action of Tempests. — Having noticed the effects of the sun's 

 direct influence on the ice, I shall next make a few remarks on the 

 action of the tempest. Scarce has the sun risen over the polar 

 horizon, and shed his oblique rays on the hoary regions of the 

 north, than the tempest begins to raise up the billows of the 

 ocean, whose heavings rend the detached ice into fragments, and 

 the west setting current carries off the ruins to be dissolved in a 

 lower latitude. 



This process often exhibits a scene truly awful. The mass 

 of thousands of millions of tons, whose farthest verge rounds off 

 the horizon, floats strong and deep, darkening the abyss, and 

 filling the atmosphere with its effulgence, till the storm heaves 

 up the deep. At first, the waves ineffectually dash along the icy 

 barrier, minghng their spray with the drift, but gathering 

 strength, sea rolls after sea ; the ice-field labours on its undu- 

 lating bed ; and the reiterated thundering crash proclaims its 

 disruption ; and, mixed with the foam, mass reels on mass till 

 the wreck is complete, and the ruins spread along the main. 



3. Action of Currents. — The current is a powerful agent in 

 destroying the ice in the North Sea, and is of such importance 

 that, if it did not exert its influence, all the surface of the ocean, 

 within the Frigid Zone, would be crowded with the separated 

 pieces. The currents are rendered very conspicuous in the 

 Greenland Seas, by the drift of the floating substances. They 

 may be divided into two kinds, accidental and permanent. Ac- 



