POLAR KEGIONS. 



Polar by other fields from the north, which affords an inex- 

 haustible supply. 



Besides the ices already described, the floating iceberg 

 remains to be considered. The fixed iceberg, or gla- 

 cier, is the parent of these considerable islets. Few of 

 them occur in the Spitzbergen sea, and these only of 

 inferior magnitude: but on the east coast of Greenland, 

 in Baffin's Bay, Davis's Strait, with the adjoining seas, 

 and also in many parts of the Antarctic regions, they 

 are met with in vast numbers, and of a prodigious size. 

 A floating object of such magnitude as the iceberg, 

 naturally attracts the attention of navigators. They 

 are described by Ellis, Frobisher, Middleton, Ross, 

 Parry, Scoresby, and others. Captain Middleton de- 

 scribes the occasional size of bergs as being three or 

 four miles in circumference, and 100 or 120 fathoms 

 thick ; and Ellis and Frobisher mention icebergs of 

 still greater thickness. Captain Ross saw many in 

 Baffin's Bay and Davis's Strait of above 1000 feet in 

 diameter, and he mentions several being seen aground 

 in 250 fathoms w ater. He describes one in particular 

 that was aground in 6' I fathoms, the diameter of which 

 was 4l6'9 yards by 3689 yards, its height 51 feet, and 

 calculated weight 1.292.397 673 tons. Captain Parry 

 describes an iceberg that was 140 feet high, and 

 aground in 120 fathoms: he saw some others that 

 were from 150 to 200 feet above the level of the sea; 

 and one that was aground near the river Clyde, above 

 two miles long, which had been seen by Captain Ross 

 two years before. 



In some parts of Davis's Strait and Baffin's Bay, ice- 

 bergs occur in. great numbers. Captain Parry saw 

 6'2 large ones at a time, in latitude 70 ; Captain Ross 

 at least 700, great and small, at once ; and Mr. 

 Scoresby, on the eastern coast of Greenland, counted 

 above 500 at once, of which scarcely any was less than 

 the hull of a ship ; and about a hundred of them ap- 

 peared to be -as high as a ship's mast-head, or 100 

 feet. Some were twice this height, and several hun- 

 dreds of yards in extent. In the 'Antarctic regions, 

 they have been seen in equal numbers, and of similar 

 magnitude. Captain Cook met with many that were 

 one or two miles in extent, and upwards of 100 feet 

 above the surface of the sea. On one occasion 186 

 were seen at the same time from the mast-head, of 

 which none was less than the hull of a ship. 



Icebergs exhibit an infinite variety of forms. Some 

 have regular Eat surfaces; but most generally they 

 have one or more acute peaks, and occasionally exhibit 

 the most extraordinary and 'fantastic shapes. They 

 have often been seen completely perforated, or con- 

 taining vast caverns, or having such deep clefts or 

 chasms in the most elevated parts, as to exhibit the ap- 

 pearance of several distinct spires. 



The colour of icebergs varies according to their so- 

 lidity, distance, and state of the atmosphere. A very 

 general resemblance is a cliff of chalk, or of white or 

 grey marble. The sun's rays reflected from the sur- 

 face, often give it a glistening appearance ; while a 

 variety of tints are sometimes observed in their colour, 

 arising from the different inflections and reflections of 

 light. The most general colour of the solid ice, how- 

 ever, is greenish-grey, approaching to emerald green. 



The structure of the iceberg is generally stratified : 

 the strata are nwked by a difference of tint, and by 

 occasional layers of earthy substance. In icebergs, 

 wherein the strata are vertical, there is sometimes a kind 



of basaltic character, particularly when the berg is in 

 a state of dissolution. They possess a degree of efful- 

 gence which renders them distinguishable in the dark- 

 est night, and is a providential property, by which the 

 danger to the navigator is greatly diminished. Hence 

 icebergs occurring singly, have seldom been produc- 

 tive of shipwreck: but when they occur in extensive 

 chains, as is sometimes the case in the mouth of Davis' 

 Strait, they become extremely dangerous, so that seve- 

 ral fatal accidents have happened, by vessels getting 

 involved among them in the night, during storms. 



Ice, of the most solid texture, becomes extremely 

 brittle after being for some time exposed to a tem- 

 perature a few degrees above the freezing. It re- 

 solves itself into prismatic columns; and when these 

 happen to be vertical in their position, they are liable 

 to be separated by the slightest blow. Icebergs, in 

 this state, on being struck by an axe, for the purpose 

 of placing a mooring anchor, have been known to rend 

 asunder, and precipitate the thoughtless seamen into 

 the yawning chasm : occasionally the berg is divided 

 by the stroke, and the two masses hurled apart with 

 a prodigious crash, overwhelming boats and men amid 

 its ponderous ruins. 



In this state, indeed, the fragility of ice is such, that 

 bergs often break in detached portions spontaneously ; 

 so that not only a blow with an edge tool, but the 

 slightest vibration in the air, may hasten its separation. 

 Hence the Greenlanders, who, from fatal accidents 

 happening among them from this cause, are well aware 

 of the danger, allow no sound to escape them when 

 passing an overhanging iceberg; but if they have oc- 

 casion to speak, it is always done in a suppressed 

 whisper. Hans Egede Saabye, who was missionary in 

 Greenland in the years 1770 to 1778, mentions in his 

 journal some remarkable instances of the separation of 

 icebergs by the vibration of the air. He states, that 

 in the neighbourhood where he resided, and during 

 his stay in Greenland, seven persons perished in a boat 

 by the fall of an iceberg, which appeared to have been 

 accelerated by a noise made by a lad, who wantonly 

 struck the skin stretched over the boat with a piece of 

 wood. The act was observed by a Greenlander, who 

 was near the boat at the moment in his kaijak: he 

 stated that the sound arising from the blow on the 

 tense skin, was reverberated from the summit of the 

 berg, and instantly the fall of ice took place.* 



The noise of a falling iceberg resembles peals of 

 thunder, which is echoed from berg to berg, and from 

 mountain to mountain, to an astonishing extent. The 

 effect on the sea is extraordinary. The waves produced 

 by it overwhelm every neighbouring object, and fre- 

 quently break up extensive floes. 



The north polar ice, chiefly consists of fields, floes, 

 and drift ice. The outline pursued by it is determin- 

 ed by the set of the currents, position of neighbour, 

 ing coasts, and the nature of the climate. These 

 circumstances give the southern frontier a very irregu- 

 lar form. On some meridians the edge of the arctic 

 ice ascends within twelve degrees of the pole ; in others 

 it descends to the southward of the sixtieth parallel of 

 latitude. Its general tendency, however, is tolerably 

 determinate ; but the varying influence of the winds 

 produces partial irregularities. 



With each recurring spring, the north polar ice pre- 

 sents the following general outline. Filling the bays 

 of Hudson and Baffin, as well as the Strait of Hudson 



Fofar 

 Regions. 



* Saabye's Journal in Greenland, p. 103. 



