40 THE OCEAN. 



But in very cold seas, like that of Smith's Strait, the water, being of 

 a still lower temperature, cannot melt the glacier, which continues its 

 course into the bay, its extreme end reaching far into the depths of 

 the ocean, like an immense plane gliding over the rocks. Though 

 lighter than the water, the enormous frozen mass is kept below be- 

 cause of its cohesion to the mer-de-gJace which drives it along. 

 But the moment comes when that connection breaks, and obeying at 

 last the force which its buoyancy imparts to it, it shoots to the sur- 

 face, and after repeated oscillations from the change in its centre of 

 gravity it rises in huge towers or fantastic peaks.* We can imagine 

 what a chaotic mass all these fragments, mixed with the marine'' ice 

 and the remains of ice-fields, must produce in narrow bays, or in 

 very contracted arms of the sea. It was across one of these pro- 

 digious - packs," in Smith's Strait, that the intrepid Hayes, with 

 almost superhuman perseverance, passed. 



These glistening icebergs are the splendour of Arctic seas. Often 

 of colossal dimensions, they present at times forms of almost per- 

 fect regularity, whilst at others they assume the most varied and 

 fantastic shapes. Lofty towers, columns in pairs, with groups of 

 sculpture, and statues, like marble divinities, rise above the sea In 

 comparatively warm seas like those of Spitzbergcn, which are af- 

 fected by the Gulf-stream, the ice is constantly worn away; and 

 those parts of the floating masses which rise above the surface of 

 the sea generally assume the appearance of pillars, with more or less 

 overhanging capitals, fringed with stalactites. The summit is white 

 and occasionally covered with snow, while the fluting of the column 

 where the more compact ice has been bathed by the waves has an 

 emerald or sapphire hue. The foundations of the columns are pierced 

 with caves, into which the water rushes with a hollow murmur • 

 and at times they are riddled with small holes, from which each wave 

 springs m diverging jets. Silvery fountains burst alternatelv from 

 either side of the column according to the inclination given to it by 

 the sea.f In very cold water, like that of the Arctic Archipelai^o 

 the opposite phenomena occur. Instead of being worn away and 

 melted by the waves, the blocks fallen from the glaciers at first 

 gradually increase m dimensions, on account of the low temperature 

 of the water into which they are plunged, which solidifies around 

 the loot of these enormous floating towers.:^ 



* Eink ; Hayes, The open Polar Sea. 



t Barto von Lowenigh, Mittheilungen von Peterniann, Erganzungsheft, xvi. 



I Edlund, Poggendorf's Ann-flrn, cxxi. 



