A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 205 



Islands, the ice continent appears abruptly broken, as if 

 large bergs had been detached in former years. There is 

 also a sloping debris at the bottom similar to rock. The 

 upper surface of the continent is torn in diverging channels, 

 evidently worn successively every summer by the dissolved 

 snow. The great body of the polar ice rises as it extends 

 northward ; and where it leans against the islands, it, in 

 many places, out-tops them. The channels on this icy 

 continent all, so far as they were visible, were directed 

 southerly. Through the spaces between the islands, the 

 bergs obtain a passage, and coming in contact with the 

 rock, either when forced from their original situation, or 

 in their passage, they are frequently stained a brown 

 colour. This the sailors call black ice. The general ap- 

 pearance of the Linn-dian Isles is bare basaltic or floetz 

 trap rock. They are in general small, two only being 

 about ten or twelve miles in length. From my chart, 

 which Avas made with the utmost accuracy, the number of 

 these islands is eighty, lying at irregular but short distances 

 from each other. One of the largest of the Linnsean Isles 

 lies to the northward of the chain in the western extremity, 

 and is of a conical form, much more elevated than the 

 others, and is covered with snow. Many smaller islands 

 lie grouped around, as well as to the southward of it, 

 and at a very short distance from each other. This island 



