290 Dr Martens on the Glaciers of Spitzbergen. 



ring the summer a part of the Spitzbergen glaciers falls into 

 the sea, we will easily understand from whence those fields of 

 fresh-water ice which float in the icy ocean proceed. Every 

 day the hays which we visited were entirely covered with new 

 masses of ice which were carried out by the tide to the sea. 

 "When the thermometer rose a few degrees above zero, and 

 the air was filled with fog, enormous masses then became de- 

 tached from the glacier and precipitated themselves with a 

 crash into the waves, which made our vessel roll about, and 

 raised the waters many metres on the bank, as during a spring- 

 tide. 



Glaciers and floating Ice of Baffin'' s Bag. — We know that in 

 Baffin's Bay the floating masses of ice are much higher than 

 in the seas of Spitzbergen ; they form true mountains. 

 Scoresby* speaks of some -15 metres in height. These ice- 

 mountains very often rest on the bottom, and M. A. de Luc 

 thinks, with reason, that they cannot melt at the bottom because 

 the temperature of thesea is there below zero. But, according to 

 the observations of Captain Ross,t there are glaciers in these 

 latitudes the height of which is about 300 metres above the 

 surface of the water. A fragment detached from such a gla- 

 cier might then form mountains 73 metres above the water. 

 It is not, therefore, necessary to suppose, as M. de Luc has 

 done, that the glaciers slide over the bottom of the sea, in or- 

 .der to explain the height of the mountains of ice in these la- 

 titudes. But considerations drawn from the temperature may 

 lead us to incline to his opinion. In fact the temperatures in 

 these latitudes are almost always below zero, even at the sur- 

 face. Ross has given meteorological tables in connection with 

 the account of his voyage in the Isabella and Alexander. The 

 temperature of the surface of the sea was noted four times 

 daily. On summing up the observations made between 

 63°.49' and 75°.44' N. Lat. during the months of June, July, 

 August, and September, 1 find only thirty-one days in which 

 the temperature of the sea was above zero ; during the 

 rest of the time it was below it. The maximum was -J- l°.ll C. ; 



* Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale-Fishery. 1823. 

 t L. c. p. 141. 



