,538 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



motion, producing a noise resem- 

 bling that of complicated ma- 

 chinery, or distant thunder. The 

 pressure was so immense, that 

 numerous fissures were occasioned , 

 and the ice repeatedly rent beneath 

 my feet. In one of the fissures, 

 1 found the snow on the level to 

 l)e three and a half feet deep, and 

 the ice upwards of twelve. In 

 one place, hummocks had been 

 thrown up to the height of twenty 

 feet from the surface of the field, 

 and at least twenty-five feet from 

 t!ic level of the water ; they ex- 

 tended fifty or sixty yards in 

 length, and fifteen in breadth, 

 forming a mass of about two 

 thousand tons in weight. The 

 majestic unvaried movement of 

 tlie ice, — the singular noise with 

 which it was accomi)anied, — the 

 tremendous jjower exerted, — and 

 the wonderful effects produced, 

 were calculated to excite sensa- 

 tions of novelty and grandeur, in 

 the mind of even the most care- 

 less spectator ! 



Sometimes these motions of the 

 ice may be accounted for. Fields 

 are disturbed by currents, — the 

 wind, — or the pressure of other 

 ice against them. Though the set 

 of the current begeneially towards 

 the south-west, yet it seeius oc- 

 casionally to vary : the wind forces 

 all ice to leeward, with a velocity 

 nearly in the inverse proportion to 

 its depth under water ; light ice 

 consequently drives faster than 

 heavy ice, and loose ice than fields : 

 loose ice meeting the side of a 

 field in its course, becomes de- 

 fiected, and its reaction causes a 

 circular motion of the field. Fields 

 may approximate each other, from 

 three causes : first. If the lighter 

 ice be to windward, it will, of ne- 



cessity, be impelled towards the 

 heavier : secondly. As the wind 

 fiequently commences blowing on 

 the windward side of the ice, and 

 continues several hours before it 

 is felt a few miles distant to lee- 

 ward, the field begins to drift, 

 before the wind can produce any 

 impression on ice on its opposite 

 side ; and, thirdly, which is not 

 an uncommon case, by the two 

 fields being impelled towards each 

 other by winds acting on each 

 from opposite quarters. 



Tlie closing of heavy ice, cn- 

 cii'cling a quantity of bay- ice, 

 causes it to i un together with such 

 force, that it overlaps wherever 

 two sheets meet, until it some- 

 times attains the thickness of 

 many feet. Drift-ice does not 

 often coalesce with such a pres- 

 suie as to endanger any ship 

 \\\\\c\\ may happen to be beset in 

 it : when, however, land opposes 

 its drift, or the ship is a great 

 distance immured amongst it, the 

 j)ressure is sometimes alarming. 



Icebergs. 



The term icebergs has com- 

 monly been applied to those im- 

 mense bodies of ii^e situated on 

 the land, " filling the valleys be- 

 tween the high mountains," and 

 generally exhibiting a square per- 

 pendicular front towards the .^ea. 

 They recede backward inland to 

 an extent never exjilored. Mar- 

 tin, Crantz, Phipps, and others, 

 have described those wondeis of 

 nature, and all agree as to their 

 manner of formation, in the con- 

 gelation of the sleet and rains of 

 summer, and of the accumulated 

 snow, partly dissolved by the sum- 

 mer sun, which, on its decline, 



freezes 



