polar-ice: — FIELDS. 243 



use of sledges drawn by dogs, for conveying them 

 across the rough land-ice, lying between the ships 

 and the shore ; — a journey they performed with such 

 celerity, that Captain Ross conjectures " they could 

 travel fifty or sixty miles a-day*." Hence, if such 

 a distance were practicable on the drift-ice occurring 

 near shore, it would be much more easy on the 

 smoother ice of fields. 



The term field, was given to the largest sheets of 

 ice by a Dutch whale-fisher. It was not until a pe- 

 riod of many years after the Spitzbergen fishery was 

 established, that any navigator attempted to pene- 

 trate the ice, or that any of the most extensive sheets 

 of ice were seen. One of the ships resorting to 

 Smeerenberg for the fishery, put to sea on one occa- 

 sion, when no w^iales were seen, persevered west- 

 ward to a considerable length, and accidentally fell 

 in with some immense flakes of ice, which, on his re- 

 turn to his companions, he described as being truly 

 wonderful, and as resembling fields in the extent of 

 their surface. Hence the application of the term 

 Field to this kind of ice. The discoverer of it 

 was distinguished by the title of " Field Finder." 



As strong winds are known to possess great influ- 

 ence in drifting off the ice, where the resistance is 

 not too considerable, may not such winds form open- 



" " ^''oyage to Baffin's Bay," p. 1.^3. 



Q 2 



