158 ENORMOUS ICEBERGS. 



a hundred feet above the surface, with water 

 pouring down from all parts of it ; and then, 

 labouring as if doubtful which way it should 

 fall, it rolled over, and, after rocking about 

 some minutes, at length became settled. 



We now approached it, and found it nearly 

 a quarter of a mile in circumference, and sixty 

 feet out of the water. Knowing its specific 

 gravity, and making a fair allowance for its 

 inequalities, we computed its weight at 421,660 

 tons. A stream of salt water was still pouring- 

 down its sides, and there was a continual crack- 

 ing noise, as loud as that of a cart-whip, occa- 

 sioned, I suppose, by the escape of fixed air. 



Some of the icebergs on the western coast 

 of Spitzbergen are of enormous dimensions. Mr. 

 Scoresby has described one, which is situated a 

 little to the northward of Horn Sound, as being- 

 eleven miles in length, and presenting a front 

 to the sea of four hundred and two feet, per- 

 pendicular height, by his own measurement ; 

 and states that it extends back to the summits 

 of the mountains to about sixteen hundred feet 

 in height. 



