443 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



the rain ceases, when the air is warm and damp, the 

 fog often returns with increased density, so that it 

 passes the eyes like smoke, and contracts the circle 

 of vision to a radius of fifty or sixty yards. Fogs, 

 by increasing the apparent distance of objects, ap- 

 pear, sometimes, to magnify men into giants, hum- 

 mocks of ice into mountains, and common pieces of 

 drift-ice into heavy floes or bergs. When fogs pre- 

 vail with a freezing temperature, they usually var- 

 nish the rigging, yards, masts, and other apparatus 

 of ships, with transparent ice. Sometimes the ice in- 

 creases to the thickness of near an inch, and is apt, 

 when dislodged by any motion produced in the rig- 

 ging, to fall in showers, and cut the hands or faces 

 of those on deck. Columns of several yards in length 

 often descend at once. 



To navigators in general, fogs are productive of 

 inconvenience and danger. To the whale-fisher, 

 they prove a special annoyance, by usually putting 

 a stop to his most important occupations, and by 

 preventing him from discovering the nature and si- 

 tuation of the ice, and other dangers with which he 

 is surrounded. They also perplex the navigator, 

 by preventing him from obtaining observations 

 for the correction of his latitude and longitude ; 

 so that he often sails in complete uncertainty. In 

 icy situations, indeed, where the sea is commonly 

 smooth, and where the sun occasionally shines 



through the fog, an artificial horizon may be used 



3 



