INTRODUCTION. 13 
blocks of precious stones, lustrous with the brilliance of the diamond 
and the sparkling colours of the sapphire and the emerald. Some- 
times these majestic masses stretch away in vast fields of ice—some- 
times they rise into high mountains. These fields of ice form 
plateaux, which are perfectly uniform, without fissure, crevasse, 
or elevation. Scoresby saw one floating, upon which a carriage 
could have driven 100 miles without the least impediment, and 
Cook found another which joined in a straight line Asia with 
North America. When these huge masses come against each 
other, the sound of the terrible shock is like thunder. 
The mountains of ice are produced by the islands, which slide 
one upon each other, and at last accumulate in such vast quantities 
as to form a mountain 130 feet high. These floating masses are 
continually eaten away by the sea, and thus their figure is altered 
almost every moment. They strike against each other—splitting, 
shattering, or freezing to each other. The icebergs have generally 
an angular surface, rising perpendicularly out of the ocean. At a 
distance they look like gigantic white transparencies which pierce 
the blue sky. When examined closely their surface is found either 
smooth or mammillated. They might be likened to pyramids of 
crystal or of diamond, with slender columns and pointed minarets, 
or enchanted and majestic edifices, with their arcades, their facades, 
and their domes. But soon the pyramids fall and crumble away ; 
column after column bends and sinks; a minaret now becomes a 
staircase, and the whole mansion, as if by enchantment, is trans- 
formed. The sight must be ever imposing where the incon- 
stancy of their forms is only rivalled by their variety, and the 
grandeur of the bergs by their fantastic shapes. 
Scoresby often astonished his sailors by lighting his pipe by 
means of a lens of ice. He split off a piece with a hatchet, 
shaped it with a knife, and polished it by the heat of the hand, 
and then held it with a glove of wool. One day he procured 
in this way a wonderfully transparent lens, fourteen inches in 
diameter. 
