Captain Parri/s intended Expedition to the North Pole, 96 



that island, sends ofF a branch towards the north. It then 

 trends to the southward, carrying all the detached ice, through- 

 out its course, in that direction. The quantity thus annually 

 disposed of, has been estimated by Mr Scoresby at 20,000 

 square leagues, which he notices is three-fourths greater than 

 the area of the sea accessible to the whale-fisher. The oppor- 

 tunity of observation afforded this intelligent gentleman, entitles 

 his remarks to every respect. I do not think he has exaggera- 

 ted in this calculation. Nay, some are of opinion that if we 

 were possessed of means to ascertain the precise amount, it would 

 be found considerably to exceed his estimate. But though the 

 area of the drifting ice much exceeds that of the fishing ground, 

 I would not consider all the surplus as the produce of unex- 

 plored regions. Such an assertion might indeed be consistent, 

 if the sea frequented by the whale-hunter was only once frozen 

 during the year, and if this annual coat alone were broken up, 

 and drifted away ; but we must recollect that, by November, 

 the water again begins to freeze, and that the early produce, 



tion does not testify its being a tropical production ; for, lately examining the 

 bottom of a fishing sloop which had been entirely confined to the banks of 

 Shetland, I found the Teredo navalis rioting in a more fearful extent than 

 I ever observed in the uncoppered planks of vessels which had long traded in 

 the Mediterranean and West Indian Seas. Some specimens of this worm 

 were a foot long, and the largest of their canals were seven-eighths of an inch 

 in (Jiameter. 



This northern branch is also the cause of the Whale-fishers' Bight, which is 

 a very deep bay in the ice, found during the early part of the season, extend- 

 ing northward towards Spitzbergen, between the meridian of London and 12® 

 or 13* of eastern longitude. There the sea does not freeze so readily, as the 

 temperature of the water is higher than the adjoining sea. It likewise, with 

 the currents coming from the north, accounts for another anomaly, which, 

 even in our day, has been considered unaccountable. M. de Capel Brook 

 wondered why no ice was formed in the harbour of Hammerfest, in Lat. 70* 

 N. though the temperature of the air was 13* below 0. Others have esteemed 

 it an unaccountable circumstance, that the coast of Newfoundland should be 

 strewed with ice, and the sheltered places on the coast frozen up, whilst the 

 shores of Iceland, and even those of Norway, remained free. Now, it is easily 

 to be accounted for, if we bear in mind the course of the currents. The rem- 

 nant of the Gulph Stream is continually passing from Iceland along the coast 

 of Norway, on which the intensity of winter has no influence : and, if the cur- 

 rents from Greenland carry not only a great body of cold water, but much 

 frozen ice over to Newfoundland, the climate and temperature of the sea must 

 be much colder than on similar latitudes on the opposite side of the Atlantic. 



