536 ANNUAL REG ISTER, 1817. 



I 



by the adjunction of higher ice, 

 the elevation of its border by the 

 pressure of the surrounding ice, 

 or the irregulaiity of its own sur- 

 face, several inches of ice must 

 be added to its thickness on the 

 returning winter, by the conver- 

 sion of the snow-water into solid 

 ice. This j)rocess repeated for 

 many successive years, or even 

 ages, together with the enlarge- 

 ment of its under-side from the 

 ocean, might be deemed sufficient 

 to pioduce the most stupendous 

 bodies of ice that have yet been 

 discovered ; at the same time that 

 the ice thus formed, would doubt- 

 less correspond with the purity 

 and transparency of that of fields 

 in general. 



Fields may sometimes ha\ e their 

 origin in heavy close packs, 

 which, being cemented together 

 by the intervention of new ice, 

 may become one solid mass. In 

 this way are produced such fields 

 as exhibit a rugged, hummocky 

 surface. 



Fields commonly make their 

 appearance abo\it the month of 

 June, though sometimes earlier : 

 — they are fiequently the resort 

 of young, whales ; strong north 

 and westerly winds expose them 

 to the Greenlandmen, by driving 

 off the loose ice. Some fields ex- 

 hibit a perfect level plain, without 

 a fissure or hummock, so clear 

 indeed, that 1 imagine, upon one 

 which I saw, a coach might be 

 driven a hundred miles in a direct 

 line, without any obstruction. 

 Most commonly, however, the 

 surface contains some hummocks, 

 which somewhat relieve the uni- 

 formity of intense light, by a 

 tinge of delicate green, in cavities 

 where the light gains admittance 



in an oblique direction, by passing 

 through a portion of ice. 



The invariable tendency of fields 

 to drift to the south-westward, 

 even in calms, is the means of 

 many being yearly destioyed. They 

 have frequently been observed to 

 advance a hundred miles in this 

 direction, within the space of one 

 month, notwithstanding the oc- 

 currence of winds from every 

 quarter. On emerging from amidst 

 the smaller ice, which before shel- 

 tered them, they are soon broken 

 up by the swell, are partly dis- 

 solved, and partly converted into 

 drift ice. The places of such are 

 supplied by others from the north. 

 Whit* bears here find an occasional 

 habitation, and will travel many 

 leagues from land upon the fields. 

 They have been repeatedly met 

 with, not only upon these con- 

 tinuous sheets of ice, but on the 

 ice of close packs, to the utmost 

 extent to which ships have pene- 

 trated. 



On the tremendous Concnssions of 

 Fields. 



The occasional rapid motion of 

 fields, with the strange effects 

 produced on any opposing sub- 

 stance, exhibited by such immense 

 bodies, is one of the most striking 

 object* this country presents, and 

 is certainly the most terrific. They 

 not unfrequently acquire a rota- 

 tory movement, whereby their cir- 

 cumference attains a velocity of 

 sever.al miles per hour. A field, 

 thus in motion, coming in contact 

 with another at rest, or more es- 

 pecially with a contrary direction 

 of movement, produces a dreadful 

 shock. A body of more than ten 

 thousand millions of tons in weight, 

 meeting with resistance, when in 



motion, 



