302 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



Instead of a sheet of ice expanding unbroken to the 

 verge of the horizon on every side, an undulating 

 sea relieves the prospect, wherein floats, the wreck 

 of the ice, reduced to a small fraction of its original 

 bulk ! This singular occurrence, I have more than 

 once witnessed. 



That ice should be forming or increasing, when 

 exposed to the swells of the ocean, while the anni- 

 hilation of bay-ice is so sudden and complete, might 

 seem an anomaly or impossibility, were the circum- 

 stances passed over in silence. It must be observ- 

 ed, that the operation of a swell is merely to rend 

 the bay-ice in pieces, while its destruction is princi- 

 pally effected, by the attrition of those pieces against 

 each other, and the washing of the wind-lippe?^ *. 

 Herein the essential difference consists : pancake 

 ice is formed in masses so small and so strong, that 

 the swell cannot divide them ; and the effect of the 

 wind-lipper is repressed by the formation of sludge 

 on its seaward margin. Hence, whenever ice does 

 occur in agitated waters, its exterior is always sludge, 

 and its interior pancake ice, the pieces of which gra- 

 dually increase in size with the distance from the 

 edge. 



When a swell occurs in crowded yet detached 

 ice, accompanied with thick tempestuous weather, it 

 presents one of the most dangerous and terrific na- 



* The first effects of a breeze of wind on smooth water is 

 by seamen called wind-lipper. From it, all high seas are de- 

 rived, and it is always apparent on their surfaces. 



