POLAR ICE. — DIFFERENT KINDS. 225 



CHAPTER IV. 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE GREENLAND OR 

 POLAR ICE. 



SECT. I. 



A Description of the Vaiious Kinds or Denomi- 

 nations of Ice. 



Of the inanimate productions of the Polar Seas, 

 none perhaps excites so much interest and astonish- 

 ment in a stranger, as the ice in its great ahundance 

 and variety. The stupendous masses, known by 

 the name of Ice-islands, or Ice-hergSi common to 

 Davis' Strait, and sometimes met with in the Spitz- 

 hergen Sea, from their height, various forms, and 

 the depth of water in which they ground, are cal- 

 culated to strike the beholder with wonder ; yet the 

 prodigious sheets of ice, Q^iWeA fields, more peculiar 

 to the Spitzbergen Sea, are not less astonishing. 

 Their deficiency in elevation, is sufficiently com- 

 VOL. I. ^ 



