300 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



probably exists in the atmosphere ; but the light 

 which falls on the sea, is in a great measure absorb- 

 ed, and the superincumbent air retains its native 

 ethereal hue. H^nce, when the ice-blink occurs 

 under the most favourable circumstances, it affords 

 to the eye a beautiful and perfect map of the ice, 

 twenty or thirty miles beyond the limit of direct 

 vision, but less distant in proportion as the atmo- 

 sphere is more dense and obscure. The ice-blink 

 not only shows the figure of the ice, but enables 

 the experienced observer to judge whether the ice 

 thus pictured be field or packed ice : if the latter, 

 whether it be compact or open, bay or heavy ice. 

 Field-ice affords the most lucid blink, accompanied 

 with a tinge of yellow ; that of packs is more purely 

 white ; and of bay-ice, greyish. The land, on ac- 

 count of its snowy covering, likewise occasions a 

 blink, which is more yellow than that produced by 

 the ice of fields. 



5. The ice operates as a powerful equaliser of 

 temperature. In the 80th degree of north latitude, 

 at the edge of the main body of ice, with a norther- 

 ly gale of wind, the cold is not sensibly greater than 

 in the 70th degree, under similar circumstances. 



6. Fogs are most prevalent among loose ice; but 

 they are dispersed, and a clear sky generally produced, 

 at the borders of a solid body of ice. The approach 

 to solid ice is sometimes announced by this clear- 

 ing of the air, and by the reduction of the tempera- 



