200 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



" and pojierior, to the total obfciirationy wasjlilljhort- 

 " er ; as if the fgure of the Earth were elliptical, 

 ** having the fni aller diameter under the Equator y and 

 " the greater, from Pole to Pole.^' 



The detached maffes, half melted, which are 

 every year torn from the circumference of this cu- 

 pola, and which are met with, floating at fea, pro- 

 digioufly diftant from the Pole, about the 55th 

 degree of Latitude, are of fuch an elevation, that 

 Ellis^ Cook^ MartenSy and other Navigators of the 

 North, and of the South, the moll accurate in 

 their details, reprefent them as, at leaft, as lofty as 

 a fhip under fail : nay, Ellis, as has already been 

 mentioned, does not hefitate to affign to them an 

 elevation of from 1500 to 1800 feet. They are 

 unanimous in affirming, that thefe vaft fragments 

 emit coirufcations, which render them perceptible 

 before ihey come to the Horizon. I fhall remark, 

 by the way, that the Aurora Borealis, or Northern 

 Light, may, very probably, owe it's origin to fimi- 

 Jar rcfleârions from the polar ices, the elevation of 

 which may, perhaps, one day be determined by 

 the extent ot thefe very lights. 



Whatever may be in this, Denis, Governor of 

 Canadi, freaking of the ices which defcend, every 

 Summer, from the North, noon the great bank of 

 Newfoundland, fays that they are higher than the 



turrets 



