On the peopling of America. 22 1 



were broken un. The temperature was thirty or forty degrees 

 above the freezing point. In that case, the air in Iceland, or 

 u|K)n the Labrador coast, coming from the temperate surface of 

 the ocean, was temperate and pleasant. Vegetation in the long 

 davs of summer wns vigorous, and the winter was not sufficiently 

 cold to destroy ptrc-iinial plants. In the process of time the v/aters 

 near the pole lost a great part of their lieat, and ice was formed 

 in t!jo creeks and bavs. Large cakes of ice were occasionally 

 bn^ken off by storms, and detached from the shore. As the tem- 

 perature of the ocean decreased, some part of the broken ice 

 continued to float through the summer. Every succeeding year 

 added to the sise of the floating masses*. They were increased 

 by rain, bv snow, and by the spray of the sea. The northern 

 ocean is nearly filled at present by those floating islands of 

 diirable ice. The summer winds that reach the coast, instead 

 of being tempered, as formerly, by a watery surface, are now 

 chilled by mountains of ice ; and tiiey are become so intensely 

 cold in winter, as to be destructive of animal and vegetable life. 

 It may possibly be alleged, that in the space of three thousand 

 years, the time that passed between the flood and Ingulfs arrival 

 in Iceland, the atmosphere should have been as cold, and the 

 accumulation of ice as great in the northern ocean as they are 

 at present. It is readily admitted, that when we consider the 

 present degree of cold wliich prevails in high latitudes, we con- 

 clude that a few years would be sufficient to produce vast bodies 

 of ice. But we are to consider, that in the case referred to, the 

 water in every part of the ocean was tepid, and the whole face 

 •of the earth was of tlie same temperature with the water ; whence 

 it followed, tliat the atmosphere could not be cold, nor could 

 there be ice or snow in the longest nights of winter. We have 

 no data liy which we mav compute the number of years or ages 

 that were ncces^^ai v to abstract so great a body of heat as then 

 existed in the northern lands and ocean; but a long jjeriod must 

 I'.ave been required, for there is no fact in natural history more 

 certain than that there was more heat, or less coKI, in high 

 northern latitudes, in the eighth or ninth century, than there is 



* I.' is a cijriinis fact, and in peifert coincidence with l]u', tlie<ji y, tliat 

 when the first Xorvveirian colony sctlled in Gretiiland, ahout one tliuusaiv,! 

 jpars nao, they foijud no difficulty ni approaching; the coast, and a rcuirinr 

 corrcspondfiire wiis^'ipportC'd with those people lor many jears. That 

 intercourse was enliiely nej^lectjed ilurinii the dailr a<iis of anarchy and 

 misrule in Europe. Since the revival ol" icarniiif^, within the t«o hist cen- 

 turies, sundry atteit>pts hate been made to discover the remains of that co- 

 lony, who lived o;i tiie .eastern part of Greenland:" liut no lauding can now 

 be effected on that coast, by reason of the vast Ijodies of ice with v\hic:h it, 

 ij pressed. From this it is clear, that vtiihin the last seven or eii;ht iiumhed 

 year? there Ims been a j^reat increase of ice in hi{;h norllieni latitude-. 



