POLAR REGIONS. 



I'n'ar cessible to navigator*, has not been seen completed. 

 K. Kiont. Some fit-ids, from their appearance, are evidently de- 

 from the cementation, by the agency of frost, of 

 the pieces of a closely aggregated puck ; but the mo-t 

 considerable masses appear to be generated either in 

 extensive b.-iys or in openings of the far northern ice. 

 The se are first derived from the waters of the ocean, 

 but, it is highly probable, that they are indebted for a 

 considerable portion of their superstructure, to the an- 

 nual addition of the whole or part of their burden of 

 now. Icebergs, on the other hand, appear to be in 

 general derived from the glaciers generated on the land 

 between the mountains on the sea-coast, and are con- 

 sequently the product of snow or rain water. But some 

 icebergs may possibly be formed in narrow coves, and 

 deep sheltered bays, in any of the polar countries, 

 where the set of the current, or prevailing winds, has 

 not a tendency to dislodge them. And it is not im- 

 probable, that a continent of ice-mountains may ex- 

 ist in regions near the poles yet unexplored, the nu- 

 cleus of which may be as ancient as the earth itself, 

 and its increase derived from the sea and atmosphere 

 combined. 



The sea is liable to freeze, in sufficiently low temper- 

 atures, not only near land and in still water, but on the 

 face of the northern ice, where it is exposed to the 

 swells of the Atlantic. Its extension in such situations is 

 liable to be checked by strong winds, bringing a heavy 

 sea in amongst it; bnt even under such circumstances 

 it has been observed to increase to such a thickness, as 

 to be capable of stopping the progress of a ship with a 

 brisk wind. Ice thus formed is reduced by the motion 

 into small masses, which, being hustled together, be- 

 come rounded, and have their edges turned up in resem- 

 blance of cakes. These masses have in consequence ob- 

 tained the name of pancake ice. At the first these cakes 

 are extremely small ; but, as they acquire thickness, a 

 number of them combine together, and form larger 

 cakes ; these, again, form to still larger masses, until 

 they attain the breadth of several feet, or even yards. 

 In calm sheltered situations, on the other band, the 

 product of the bay ice is in extensive unbroken sheets 

 of a smooth and regular surface. 



The ice of fields and of bergs is the most transpa- 

 rent. It occasionally resembles the purest crystal ; 

 and has been constructed into lenses capable of burn- 

 ing wood, firing gunpowder, and melting the more 

 easily fusible metals. * 



Though new ice and that of fields or bergs differ 

 very considerably in appearance ; the former being 

 white, partly opaque, and the latter blackish, or, when 

 in large masses, greenish, and transparent ; yet the 

 density of all kinds is very nearly equal. 



The highest specific gravity observed by Mr. Scores- 

 by, in a number of careful experiments, was 0.925, 

 and the lowest 0.915; snow-water, temperature 32 

 being 1.000. But, compared with sea-water from the 

 coast of Spitzbergen, temperature 35 ; the specific 

 gravity of ice is 0.900 and 0.894. As such, when ice 

 is afloat in the sea, the proportion above to that below 



the surface, must be 1 to 8.2. t For every solid foot of 

 ice, therefore, which is seen above water, in a mass 

 (lotting in the sea, there must be at least eight feet be- 

 low. A cubic inch of compact ice weighi 231.5 grain*, 

 and a cubic inch of sea-water at a freezing tempera- 

 ture, (specific gravity 1.0264, being the average of the 

 (in, nldnd sea,) weighs 259.58 grains ; the weight of 

 ice being to the weight of sea-water as 8 to 8.97 or 8 

 to 9 nearly. 



The ice usually first met with by navigators it 

 drift ice, or bergs ; fields and floes are generally found 

 in the interior ice, sheltered from the action of any 

 swell. 



Drift-ice occurs of almost every variety of size, thick- 

 ness, and possible shape. At a little distance from 

 the main ice, there is usually a quantity of scattered 

 fragments, the ruins of larger masses, in a state of dis- 

 solution by the washing of the sea. Though of a de- 

 scription not to be compared with the beautiful ex- 

 tent and appearance of fields, or the grandeur of ice- 

 bergs, yet the drift-ice is an object of much interest, 

 and particularly on account of the infinite variety of 

 curious and amusing shapes which it assumes. The 

 most remarkable of these are formed in pieces where, 

 on small separate bases, are reared prodigious blocks 

 of ice, the original production of enormous pressure ; 

 but from the detrition of sea-water, in high winds 

 and heavy swells, these perhaps shapeless and unin- 

 teresting masses become such exact resemblances of 

 animals, or works of art, that they force themselves on 

 the attention of the most vulgar and incurious. Re- 

 semblances of bears, sometimes elevated on pedestals, 

 antique tables, surrounded with fringes of large sta- 

 lactites of crystalline ice, collossal busts, resembling the 

 monuments of Easter Island, vases, heads of different 

 animals, and various pieces of almost perfect statuary, 

 are not unfrequently seen ; and tables, or roofs of 

 vast magnitude, supported by Ionic columns and Go- 

 thic arches, the former consisting of capitals with 

 ovalo, astragal, and other mouldings, and portions of 

 the shafts founded on bases rendered invisible by sub- 

 mersion in the sea, with other architectural forms of 

 astonishing precision, have been observed by adven- 

 turers to the polar seas. Some of these figures are occa- 

 sionally reared to the height of forty or fifty feet ; and 

 some of them have been calculated to weigh 200 or 300 

 tons. The architectural specimens seem the most extra- 

 ordinary, as, in an infinite variety of shapes, the forms 

 of animals and simple works of art must evidently oc- 

 cur occasionally ; but the occurrence of Ionic columns, 

 with regular mouldings, might be questioned, were 

 we not able to account for their formation. A mass 

 of ice of this description, which was recently seen in 

 the Greenland sea, consisted of an immense table of 

 ice, supported on a submarine base, by round columns, 

 with excellent capitals and regular mouldings. Its 

 formation is thus described by the person who saw it, 

 and made a drawing of it at the time, for which he had 

 ample opportunity, as the ship lay nearly becalmed 

 near it for a considerable interval. It was a vast block 



* Sc/>resby's Arctic Regions, vol. i. p. 232. 



t As this result differs very materially from the experiments made in the recent voyages of discovery, it may be necessary to state, thtt 

 Mr. Scoresby's method of obtaining the specific gravity of ice was by weighing the ice in sea- water at a freezing temperature, when sunk 

 by a piece of metal, and then weighing it in air. The difference between the weight of the ice in water, w\th the load attached, and the 

 weight in water of the load singly, showed the difference between the weight of the ice and an equal bulk of water; consequently, this dif- 

 ference, added to the weight of the ice in uir, afforded the weight of an equal bulk of water; and the comparison of the two latter weights 

 gave, in the usual way, the specific gravity of the ice. (See Account sin-tic Regions, vol. i. p. 82.) The method employed, in the discovery 

 vessels, on the other hand, was by cutting a piece of ice in the form of a cube, and measuring die proportion above water when afloat. 7 he 

 discrepancy of the results show the inaccuracy of the proccsf. 



VOL. XVII. PART I. 5 



