246 OF THE EXPEDITION 



because experience had taught them to find fresh water for 

 the supply of their ships, from pools to be found on the 

 bergs, they of course supposed that those masses could be 

 formed only in fresh water. In the foregoing pages, 

 wherein ice formation is considered, the fallacy of such an 

 opinion has been exposed ; and I think this place not in- 

 appropriate to mention it again, lest any error to that effect 

 should dwell upon the minds of such persons. 



Now by the descent of those ice bergs into lower lati- 

 tudes', the great parent accumulation must be undergoing 

 annual decay ; but, as it is so rarely seen, from the vast 

 tracts of field ice that keep it usually beyond view, little 

 can be said with regard to its increase by annual supply. 

 Should I be allowed to offer an opinion on the subject, I 

 would presume to say, that the great ice continent is 

 suffering rapid diminution, by the bursting of the bergs 

 from its lofty sides ; that nothing is added to the extent of 

 that continent at its base, as nothing but comparatively 

 thin field ice is there formed, and that as the bergy frag- 

 ments are detached and carried to the southward, it must 

 be evident that they must have open water for their pro- 

 gress in that direction. 



That the passage of those bergs southward is not in 

 uniform time, many being recognized in particular situa- 

 tions for years, is argument also to prove that the seas 

 in which they move are not always open, and consequently 



