92 ARCTIC ICE. 



100 feet in height. A violent wind often upsets such as 

 become topheavy from the waves lessening their bulk 

 below. One particular form of berg is most deserving of 

 notice, and that is at present to be seen in Marshal's Bay, 

 which lies to the northward of the Frow, or Women's 

 Islands. There are two remarkable bergs of the descrip- 

 tion which sailors call ragged bergs. One of these is at 

 least two miles in circumference, and its upper part is 

 turreted with irregular square pillars at short intervals 

 from each other, and with flat tops. These pillars have 

 a basaltic shape in the fancy of an observer, and form the 

 remarkable character of this kind of berg. The pillars 

 are about thirty feet in height ; and the base on which they 

 stand is at least 100 feet above the surface of the sea, and 

 has the appearance of being rent from some larger mass 

 with great violence. There are numerous other immense 

 bergs in the same bay, but this is the most remarkable. 



Among the many names of respectable authority men- 

 tioned, as having offered an opinion Avith regard to the 

 formation of the ice bergs, is that of Capt. Middleton. He 

 accounts for them by supposing them as originally formed 

 in the inlets or firths of Greenland, whence they are carried 

 by a deluge or land flood, which breaks them loose, and 

 forces them into the open sea, rather increasing than diminish- 

 ing in bulk, where they continue floating about, until, after 

 a lapse of some hundreds of years, they finally become dis- 



