62 Arctic Land Expedition. 



continued to thwart us. Near the Greenland coast the streams 

 or fields of ice consisted of a collection of loose and compara- 

 tivelv flat pieces, more or less densely compacted together, ac- 

 cording to the state of the weather; but on approaching the shores 

 of Labrador, we fell in with nianv icebergs, or large floating fields 

 of ice. The variety of forms assumed by these masses afforded 

 us amusement, but occasionally we saw some of such an enormous 

 size, that everv other feeling gave place to astonishment. One 

 of these larger bergs we estimated to be 200 feet high above the 

 water, and above half a mile in length. Its surface was broken 

 bv mountains of no mean size, with deep valleys between. Enor- 

 mous as these dimensi.ms must appear, you will be more surprised 

 when I inform you, that the part of an iceberg which projects 

 above water, amounts only to a ninth part of the whole mass, that 

 being ;the proportion of ice which floats above salt water. Ar- 

 thur's Seat clothed in snow would have formed only one pinnacle 

 to this berg. When these bodies became familiar to us from their 

 frequency, we derived much pleasure from the various shades and 

 gradations of colour they exhibited. The more compact parts 

 were generallv of a bright verdigris blue ; towards the base a 

 fine sea green prevailed ; here and there a tint of red was seen, 

 and the summits alone were snow-white. As the part of tlic ice 

 which is covered bv the sea decays more rapidly than that which 

 is in the air, it often happens that one of these islands becomes 

 top-heavy and tumbles over. We never saw one in the act of 

 making this revohition, but most of them bore evident marks of 

 having been overturned twice or thrice ; the old water lines, in- 

 tersecting each other in various directions, being still deeply en- 

 graved on their surfaces. 



*' We first beheld the land (Resolution island) during a fog, 

 which soon became so thick that we could not see the length of 

 the ship. In consequence of this, we got involved in a field of 

 ice : then, to add to our distress, it fell calm ; and although we 

 could perceive that we were carried along by a violent current, 

 yet the fog deprived us of ascertaining its direction, and the depth 

 of water was too great to admit of our anchoring. After remaining 

 in this situation for two or three hours, receiving occasionally 

 some heavy blows frcm the ice, an alarm was given that we were 

 close on the rocks. We all ran up<m deck, and beheld a tremen- 

 dous cliff frowning directly over the mast heads of the ship. 

 It was perfectly perpendicular, covered in many places by sheets 

 of ice; and its summit was so high, and shrouded in so thick 

 a fog, that it could not be traced from the deck. We had 

 scarcely time to make any useful exertions; for in a few minutes 

 the ship fell broadside against the cliff, along the face of which 



£he 



