STUDY IV* 



177 



tors of the North encountered there at Sea, even 

 in the midft of Summer, and of which feme, if 

 Ellis is to be believed, were from fifteen to eighteen 

 hundred feet above it's level j for their elevation 

 mufl: probably go on increafmg, up to the very- 

 Pole, in conformity to the proportions obfervable 

 in thofe which cover the fummits of our icy moun- 

 tains ; which mufl: give them, under the very 

 Pole, a height which there is no pofTibility of de- 

 termining. 



From this fimple outline, it is clearly percep- 

 tible what an enormous aggregation of water is 

 fixed, by the cold of Winter, in our Hemifphere, 

 above the level of the Ocean. It is fo very con- 

 liderable, that I think myfclf warranted to afcribe 

 to the periodical fufion of this ice, the general 

 movement of our Ocean, and that of the tides. 

 We may apply, in like manner, the effeds of the 

 fufion of the ices of the South Pole, which are 

 there ftill more enormous, to the movements of 

 it's Ocean. 



No conclufion has, hitherto, been drawn, rela- 

 tively to the movements of the Sea, from the two 

 mafles of ice fo confiderable, alternately accumu- 

 lated and diflblved at the two Poles of the World. 

 They neceflarily mufl, however, occafion a very 

 perceptible augmentation of it's waters, on their 



VOL. I. N return 



