250 ACCOUNT OF THE AllCTIC llEGIONS. 



pressure was so immense, that numerous fissures 

 were occasioned, and the ice repeatedly rent be- 

 neath my feet. In one of the fissures, I found the 

 snow on the levl to be three and a half feet deep, 

 and the ice upwards of twelve. In one place, 

 hummocks had been thrown up to the height of 

 twenty feet from the surface of the field, and at 

 least twenty-five feet from the level of the water ; 

 they extended fifty or sixty yards in length, and 

 fifteen in breadth, forming a mass of about two 

 thousand tons in weight The majestic unvaried 

 movement of the ice, — the singular noise with which 

 it was accompanied, — the tremendous power exert- 

 ed, — and the wonderful effects produced, were cal- 

 culated to excite sensations of novelty and gran- 

 deur, in the mind of the most careless spectator ! 



SECT. IV. 



Description of Icebergs, and JRemarks on their 

 Formation. 



The term Ice-hergs has commonly been applied 

 to the glaciers occurring in Spitzbergen, Greenland, 

 and other arctic countries. It is also as commonly 

 extended to the large peaks, mountains or islets of 

 ice, that are found floating in the sea. The fixed 

 ice-bergs, or polar glaciers, liave been described in 



