2 INTRODUCTION. Chap. I. 



might have remained unknown, but for an extra- 

 ordinary change which a few intelligent navigators 

 remarked in the state of the Arctic ice, and the re- 

 ports of the unusual quantities of this ice observed 

 in the Atlantic." 



The extract here quoted must, I believe, be laid 

 at my door. The event alluded to was the disap- 

 pearance of the whole, or greater part, of the vast 

 barrier of ice, which for a long period of time, per- 

 haps for centuries, was supposed to have maintained 

 its firm-rooted position on the eastern coast of Old 

 Greenland ; and its re -appearance in a more south- 

 erly latitude, where it was met with, as was attested 

 by various persons worthy of credit, in the years 

 1815-16 and 17; by ships coming from the East 

 Indies and America ; by others going to Halifax and 

 Newfoundland ; and in different parts of the Atlantic, 

 as far down as the 40th parallel of latitude. Some 

 of these detached masses were of an unusual mag- 

 nitude and extent, amounting in some instances to 

 whole islands of ice, of such vast dimensions that 

 ships were impeded by them for many days in then- 

 voyages ; others were detached icebergs, from a 

 hundred to a hundred and thirty feet above the sur- 

 face of the water, and several miles in circumfer- 

 ence. The Halifax packet reported that she had 

 passed a mountain of ice, nearly two hundred feet 

 hio-h, and at least two miles in circumference. A 

 ship, belonging to the Old Greenland Missions, 



