A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 15.<{ 



cannot be imagined that such a story would recommend ;i 

 sensible application to any persons knowing the nature of ice. 

 The specific gravity of that substance is lighter than that of 

 water : ice floats in fresh water, which is much lighter than 

 salt or sea water ; and chemical observation has proved that 

 one of the chief causes of its buoyancy in the latter fluid 

 is from the mass losing its salt, which precipitates as the 

 congelation proceeds. Another objection to the sufficiency 

 of this account is derivable from the terms " solid," and 

 " compact," when applied to ice ; for surely no philo- 

 sophic mind would find it right to admit such phraseology 

 in any grave representation. Again, " the Greenland 

 whale fishery," inserted in such a communication, Avould 

 be matter of curious reading to persons knowing that 

 whales are not scientifically denominated fish. Equally 

 unfit would it be to represent, in such an application, that 

 " it would be adviseable for the merchants engaged in the 

 Greenland Avhale fishery, not to postpone the sailing of 

 their ships to the usual season, but to expedite them at 

 once, so as to take advantage of the temporary fresh." 

 The adviser of such expediting should be aware that the 

 ice in the arctic seas breaks up only about a certain period, 

 in the latter end of the month of April or beginning of 

 May, of which event the whalers are so well aware, that 

 the Davis's Strait ships are sent oft' only in the beginning 

 of March, that the length of time necessary for traversing 



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