244 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC HEGIONS. 



iiigs in the ice far to the uortli, as well as in lati- 

 tudes within our reach and observation ? Notwith- 

 standing the degree in which this cause may pre- 

 vail is uncertain, yet of this we are assured, that the 

 ice on the west coast of Spitzbergen has always a 

 tendency to drift, and actually does advance in a 

 most surprising manner to the south or south-west ; 

 whence, some vacancy must assuredly be left in the 

 place which it formerly occupied. 



These openings, therefore, may be readily frozen 

 over, whatever be their extent, and the ice may 

 in time acquire all the characters of a massy field. 



It must, however, be confessed, that from the den- 

 sity and transparency of the ice of fields, and the 

 purity of the water obtained from them, it is difficult 

 to conceive that it could possess such characters if 

 frozen entirely from the water of the ocean ; — parti- 

 cularly as young ice is generally found to be porous 

 and opaque, and does not afford a solution altogether 

 pure. The following theory, therefore, is perhaps 

 more consonant to appearances ; and although it 

 may not be established, has at least probability to 

 recommend it. 



It appears from what has been advanced, that 

 openings may occasionally occur in the ice between 

 Spitzbergen and tlie Pole, and that these openings 

 will in all probability be again frozen over. Al- 

 lowing, therefore, a thin field or a field of bay-ice to 

 be formed in such an opening, a superstructure may 



