1?7<5. ROUND THE WORLD. 221 



formed in the bays, and before the flat valleys ; the 

 others, which have a tapering unequal surface, must 

 be formed on, or under, the side of a coast composed 

 of pointed rocks and precipices, or some such uneven 

 surface. For we cannot suppose that snow alone, as 

 it falls, can form, on a plain surface, such as the sea, 

 such a variety of high peaks and hills as we saw on 

 many of the ice isles. Jt is certainly more reason- 

 able to believe that they are formed on a coast whose 

 surface is something similar to theirs. I have observed 

 that all the ice-islands of any extent, and before 

 they begin to break to pieces, are terminated by per- 

 pendicular cliffs of clear ice or frozen snow, always 

 on one or more sides, but most generally all round. 

 Many, and those of the largest size, which had a 

 hilly and spiral surface, showed a perpendicular cliff 

 or side from the summit of the highest peak down to 

 its base. This to me was a convincing proof, that 

 these, as well as the flat isles, must have broken off 

 from substances like themselves, that is, from some 

 large tract of ice. 



When 1 consider the vast quantity of ice we saw, 

 and the vicinity of the places to the pole where it is 

 formed, and where the degrees of longitude are very 

 small, I am led to believe that these ice-cliffs extend 

 a good way into the sea, in some parts, especially in 

 such as are sheltered from the violence of the winds. 

 It may even be doubted if ever the wind is violent in 

 the very high latitudes. And that the sea will 

 freeze over, or the snow that falls upon it, which 

 amounts to the same thing, we have instances in the 

 northern hemisphere. The Baltic, the Gulph of St. 

 Laurence, the Straits of Belle-Isle, and many other 

 equally large seas, are frequently frozen over in 

 winter. Nor is this at all extraordinary, for we have 

 found the degree of cold at the surface of the sea, 

 even in summer, to be two degrees below the freezing 

 point ; consequently nothing kept it from freezing 

 but the salts it contains, and the agitation of its 



