SUCCESS MAY BE ATTAINED. a63 



from the fiords,* sounds, and other entrances being 

 blocked up by the bergy ice, which obstructs the passage 

 of such field, or packed ice, as descends from the internal 

 waters ; for it may be received as an axiom, that, in ex- 

 tensive seas, there is the readiest solution of ice. 



From Disko to the northward the land gradually be- 

 comes less elevated, an odd eminence occasionally ap- 

 pearing above the descending line, until the most remote 

 lands are buried in the polar ice, which beyond the 

 Linnaean Isles is seen to out-top the rocky prominences. 



From what cause the accumulation of polar ice has 

 arisen is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to determine. 

 The depression of the earth's axis, during the great change 

 which gave the globe its present appearance, mijght be 

 assumed as a prevailing cause. The presence of the sun, 

 were there no declination, would extend a steady degree 

 of temperature towards both poles, and would in that case 



* Fiord, pronounced feuor, is the space between two projecting mountains, 

 the bottom being narrower as the bases of the promontories descend in the 

 sea, into which tliey dip sometimes steeply, but generally otherwise, as has 

 been determined by soundings, which are always more shallow near the rocks 

 than more remotely ; so that the jutting base of the rock on both sides may 

 be distinctly traced by sounding towards the middle of the fiord. There is 

 generally shoal water or a rocky reef in the neighbourhood of a fiord, which 

 may be easily distinguished from the, other inlets by the land being visible at 

 its inner extremity, and from a bay by its very narrow appearance. It is 

 therefore adviseable to keep a good offing when near any of those fiords. 



