POLAR ICE. — ABSTRACT OF OBSERVATIONS. 319 



II. Drift-ice. — That the light packed or drift 

 ice is the yearly product of the bays of the Arctic 

 lands, and of the interstices in the body of older 

 ice, and that it is wholly derived from the water of 

 the ocean. 



That the heavy packed or drift ice generally 

 arises from the disruption of fields. 



III. Icebergs. — That most of the ice-mountains 

 or icebergs that occur in Baffin's Bay, Davis' Strait, 

 Hudson's Strait, and on the eastern coast of North 

 America, are derived from the glaciers generated 

 on the land between the mountains of the sea-coast, 

 and are consequently the product of snow or rain 

 water. 



That some icebergs may possibly be formed in 

 narrow coves and deep-sheltered bays in any of the 

 polar countries, where the set of the current or pre- 

 vailing winds has not a tendency to dislodge them. 

 Such having their bed in the waters of the ocean, 

 must be partly the product of sea-water, and partly 

 that of snow and rain water. And it is not im- 

 probable. 



That a continent of ice-mountains may exist in 

 regions near the Pole, yet unexplored, the nucleus 

 of which may be as ancient as the earth itself, and 

 its increase derived from the sea and atmosphere 

 combined. 



