56 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



who know little or nothing of the nature of field- 

 ice, must be less adequate judges of the practica- 

 bility of the scheme ^than any of the whale-fishers ; 

 as it is in expectation that field-ice would be met 

 with throughout, that renders the project feasible. 

 On the kind of ice, indeed, which occurs generally 

 on the coast of Spitzbergen, in small irregular mas- 

 ses, constituting what is called drift-ice, heaped 

 one piece upon another to a considerable height, 

 intermixed with fragments of ice-bergs, and form- 

 ing as rough a surface as can well be imagined, the 

 journey would doubtless be impracticable ; but on ■ 

 field-ice, found commonly within a few leagues of 

 the sea in high latitudes, in sheets of many miles 

 in diameter, and frequently of very even surface, 

 the difficulties of travelling would be very inferior *. 



* Few of the Russian fishers, it is probable, who only fre- 

 quent the coast, ever saw any field ice. In the answers to queries 

 19- and 25. of Colonel Beaufoy, we find the ice represented as 

 rriountainous ; as appearing " monstrously large and lofty ;" 

 and as running flake upon flake to a great height, so as to make 

 the passage on foot very difficult. Now, this kind of ice is pe- 

 culiar to the coast, and is totally different from field ice. In- 

 deed its roughness is chiefly occasioned by the resistance of 

 the coast, when the ice is forcibly driven against it by the 

 power of strong winds. And the large openings of water ob- 

 served, also result from the same cause ; for whenever the wind 

 blows for a length of time from the shore, the ice, being afloat, 

 is generally drifted away. But such effects do not take place 

 at a distance from land. I have myself, indeed, been many 

 times so closely fixed among ice, that not the smallest opening 

 could be observed from the mast head, in any direction. 



