POLAR REGIONS. 



13 



and part of the Strait of Davi, it exhibits an irregular 

 waving, but generally continuous border, from New- 

 fbundlaiid or Labrador, to Nova Zembla. 



From Newfoundland it extends in a northerly di- 

 rection, along the Labrador shore, generally prevent- 

 ing all nccess to the land during winter, as high as 

 Hudson's Strait; then turning to the north-east, east, 

 arid south, forms a bay near the coast of Greenland. 

 After doubling Cape Farewell, it advances in a north- 

 eastern direction along the east coast, sometimes en- 

 veloping Iceland as it proceeds, until it reaches the 

 island of Jan May en. i'assing this island, the edge of 

 the ice then trends a little more to the eastward, but 

 afterwards turns to the northward, and forms a bight 

 <>tf the west coast of Spitzbergen. This bight some* 

 times extends to the latitude of 80, or even higher ; 

 at others it is crossed by a barrier i>i 75 or 76. From 

 the southern part of Spitzbergen, the ice runs south- 

 easterly to Cherie Island, which having passed it pro- 

 ceeds more to the eastward, until it forms a junction 

 with the coast of Nova Ztmbla or that of Siberia. 



During the whole of the winter and spring months, 

 the Polar ice seems closely to embrace the whole of 

 the northern shores of Russia, to the eastward of Nova 

 Zembla; and filling in a great measure the sea to the 

 northward of Kehring's Strait, it continues in contact 

 with the polar face of the American continent, until it 

 probably joins the ices of Baffin's Bay. * 



This general termination to the polar ice is not; 

 however, observed by the iceberg. Its vast bulk and 

 thickness -enable it to resist, for a longer period, the 

 destructive influence of both temperate climate and 

 turbulent seas. It often, therefore, gets drifted many 

 degrees to the southward of the continuous ice ; and it 

 has been conveyed before dissolution, by the under 

 current running out of Davis's Strait to the southward, 

 as far as latitude 40, or even farther, a distance of at 

 least 2000 miles from the place of its origin. 



The line pursued by the margin of the Arctic ice, 

 it has been intimated, is in a general way tolerably de- 

 terminate. But occasional variations take place. Thus 

 in the Greenland sea, after an extraordinary prevalence 

 of northerly winds, a more than usual quantity of ice 

 is drifted into milder climates, so that the Spitzbergen 

 sea is uncommonly open ; and, on the contrary, after 

 an extraordinary continuance of southerly winds 

 throughout the winter, retarding the common efflux of 

 ice, the channel between Spitzbergen and Greenland is 

 sometimes completely filled. Such deviations are, how- 

 ever, soon compensated, and the ordinary outline again 

 restored. 



One known exception has occurred, which is the 

 most remarkable alteration in the configuration of the 

 polar ice on record. In the eleventh, fourteenth, and 

 intermediate centuries, it would appear from the cre- 

 dible testimony of Icelandic historians, there was a 

 constant trade carried on, in the summer and autumn 

 at least, between the colonists of the southern, and 

 perhaps the eastern parts of Greenland, and the mother 

 country Iceland. We read of no particular interrup- 

 tion to this intercourse, until the beginning of the fif- 

 teenth century, when the polar ice is supposed to have 

 first descended so as completely to embargo the whole 

 of (he colonized districts of Greenland. Thus far ap- 

 pears very certain, that these coasts, where the colonies 

 were supposed to be planted, are now generally en- 

 veloped in ice ; and that the many attempts made by 

 Denmark to recover these colonies, or even to effect a 



landing upon them, have altogether failed. Hence it Pl>< 

 is generally supposed, that they are now inaccessible, Rg<on. 

 and that the imprisoned colonists have long ago pe- S0 "V^*' 

 rished from the want of their mual supplies. 



That the polar ice has descended beyond its ancient 

 boundaries, and that a great body of it usually lie* off 

 the eastern and southern coasts of Greenland, are facts 

 that cannot reasonably be di.-pntt-d ; but its inaccessi- 

 bility, notwithstanding the failures of the Danish navi- 

 gators, is by no means proved. Nay, on the contrary, 

 we have the greatest reason to believe, and that 

 from the best existing authority, namely, that of 

 persons who have been in the habit of visiting the po- 

 lar seas for many years in succession, that the east- 

 ern coast of Greenland may be reached almost every 

 year ; and, indeed, that it has ofttimes of late been ap- 

 proached, as near as the whale fishers deemed desir- 

 able, in a latitude at least ten degrees higher than that 

 of the ancient colonies. The want of success, there- 

 fore, in the Dmi&h voyagers who were sent out in 

 search of the lost colonies, is to be attributed to the 

 want of energy of the attempts, or the inexperience of 

 the commanders in the navigation of icy seas, rather 

 than to the impenetrability of the frozen barrier. 



The occasion of the change of climate about Iceland 

 and Greenland, is ascribed to the descent of the polar 

 ice ; but the real cause of this phenomenon is a ques- 

 tion which will be touched upon in our next section, 

 when we come to speak of the climate of the arctic 

 regions. 



The quantity of ice annually destroyed in the Polar 

 regions, or in the adjacent seas into which it is drifted, 

 is equivalent to the annual produce in the higher lati- 

 tudes. The winter's produce of ice between Greenland 

 and Spitzbergen, in Davis's Strait, Baffin's Bay, Hud- 

 son's Bay, and adjoining seas, is perhaps wholly dis- 

 solved in the succeeding summer, besides a vast quan- 

 tity brought by currents from regions near the pole. 

 Hence, however close these seas and bays may be dur- 

 ing the winter and spring, we find them, for a few 

 months in each year, quite open and accessible to the 

 adventurous whalers. 



The actual produce of ice, within the Polar circle, 

 in any one winter, has been seldom accurately marked. 

 Captam Parry ascertained this fact, however, in Win- 

 ter Harbour, Melville Island. From the middle of 

 September 1819, up to 23d of March following, the 

 produce of ice was a sheet of 7 or 7 feet thick, being 

 6'^ feet of solid ice, and about 8 inches of snow. By 

 the Oth of July, this ice was dissolved into holes, and 

 the average thickness reduced to about two feet. The 

 holes first appeared, it is observable, where the water 

 was most shallow, and there the freezing of the water 

 first took place. About the middle of this month, the 

 whole of the winter's produce of ice, inshcre, was found 

 to be nearly wasted away. In this instance, the wast- 

 ing of the ice was the mere effect of temperature ; 

 but in parts of the Polar seas less sheltered, the action 

 of the waves, which is much more rapid than that of 

 warmth, greatly accelerates the destruction of the young 

 ice. In many cases, this destruction is most rapid, and 

 an entrance into the northern bays and seas opened 

 -with astonishing celerity. Sometimes the whole of 

 the obstruction to the passage of the whalers, up 

 the western coast of Spitzbergen, consisting of a 

 barrier of 20 or 30 leagues of ice, has been destroyed 

 or dispersed by a heavy sea in a few hours ; and, in 

 general, however formidable the obstruction met with 



* Scoresby's Arctic Regions, ToL i. p. 865. 



