NATURAL HISTORY. 



547 



parallel motion of the ice leaves 

 no opening or evidence of its 

 change of place j for here, the ice 

 meeting with no obstruction to 

 cause it to divide, moves on in a 

 solid body, retained firm and un- 

 broken by the tenacious solder of 

 the interjacent bay ice. 



In the month of May, the seve- 

 rity of the frost relaxes, and 

 the temperature occasionally ap- 

 proaches within a few degrees of 

 the freezing point : the brine then 

 exerts its liquefying energy, and 

 destroys the tenacity of the bay 

 ice, makes inroads in its parts by 

 enlarging its pores into holes, di- 

 minishes its thickness, and, in the 

 language of the whale-fisher, com- 

 pletely rots it. The p«cked drift 

 ice is then loosed j it submits to 

 the laws of detached floating 

 bodies, and obeys the slightest 

 impulses of the winds or currents. 

 The heavier having more stability 

 than the lighter, an apparent dif- 

 ference of movement obtains 

 among the pieces. Holes and 

 lanes of water are formed, which 

 allow the entrance and progress 

 of the ships, without that stub- 

 born resistance offered earlier in 

 the spring of the year. 



Bay ice is sometimes serviceable 

 to the whale-fishers, in preserving 

 them from the brunt of the heavy 

 ice, by embedding their ships, and 

 occasioning an equable pressure 

 on every part of the vessel : but, 

 in other respects, it is the great- 

 est pest they meet with in all their 

 labours : it is troublesome in the 

 fishery, and in the progress to the 

 fishing ground ; it is often the 

 means of besetment, as it is called, 

 and thence the primary cause of 

 every other calamity. Heavy ice, 



many feet in thickness, and in de- 

 tached pieces of from 50 to 100 

 tons weight each, though crowded 

 together in the form of a pack, 

 may be penetrated, in a favourable 

 gale, with tolerable dispatch ; 

 whilst a sheet of bay ice, of a few 

 inches only in thickness, with the 

 same advantage of wind, will 

 often arrest the progress of the 

 ship, and render her in a few 

 minutes immoveable. If this ice 

 be too strong to be broken by 

 the weight of a boat, recourse 

 must be had to sawing, an ope- 

 ration slow and laborious in the 

 extreme. 



When the warmth of the season 

 has rotted the bay ice, the passage 

 to the northward can generally be 

 accomplished with a very great 

 saving of labour. Therefore it 

 was, the older fishers seldom or 

 never used to attempt it before the 

 loth of May, and foreigners are in 

 general late. Sometimes late ar- 

 rivals are otherwise beneficial ; 

 since it frequently happens, iu 

 close seasons, that ships entering 

 the ice about the middle of May ob- 

 tain an advantage over those pre- 

 ceding them, by gain^Qg a situation 

 more eligible, on account of its 

 nearness to the land. Their prede- 

 cessors, meanwhile, are drifted off 

 to the westward v/ith the ice, and 

 cannot recover their easting ; for 

 they are encompassed with a large 

 quantity of ice, and have a greater 

 distance to go than when they first 

 entered, and on a course precisely 

 in opposition to the direction of 

 the most prevailing winds. Hence 

 it appears, that it would be eco- 

 nomical and beneficial to sail so 

 late, as not to reach the country 

 before the middle of May, or to 



2 N 2 peraewere 



