ATLANTIC OCEAN. 



ATLANTIC OCEAN. 



carried along the eastern coast of Greenland to Cape Farewell in close 

 , so that they only can be penetrated in the summer mouths 



with much labour and peril by bold navigators. In winter they seem 

 to be fixed to the coast and to become stationary by the intensity 

 of the front, and even to extend over a part of the Atlantic which 

 in summer it free from ice. The whale-fishers who annually 

 rimit the Spitsbergen Sea and Davis's Strait find that these 

 masse* of ice form in the month of May an irregularly waring but 

 generally continuous line from Newfoundland and Labrador to Nova- 



This continuous line of polar ice extends from Newfoundland in a 

 northerly direction along the Labrador shore, generally preventing all 

 acoeas to land, aa high as the mouth of the Hudson Strait ; then 

 turning to the north-east, it forms a bay near the coast of Greenland 

 in about 66 or 67* N. lat by suddenly passing away to the southward 

 to the southern extremity of Greenland. But this bay usually formed 

 by the ice at 66 or 67 lat does not always exist The quantity of 

 ice on each side of Davis's Strait is often small, and then the continuity 

 of the ice-masses is liable to be broken so as to allow ships to reach 

 the land. From the conformation of the laud, geographers have for 

 some time had an opinion that the sea on the north of the Parry 

 Islands might be as clear as it is known to be throughout the year in 

 the same latitude north of the Siberian Islands. This opinion has 

 received a certain amount of confirmation by the discovery made by 

 Captain Penny that the Wellington Channel opened out into a strait 

 which was clear to the north-west This discovery has greatly 

 strengthened the expectation that this may prove a channel of com- 

 munication as a continuation of Barrow's Strait from the Atlantic 

 into the Polar Ocean. In the summer of 1852 Sir Edward Belcher 

 sailed up the Wellington Channel, which was then open, and it is 

 expected that he will be enabled to solve this problem ; if unhappily 

 he should be unable to throw light on the fate of Sir John Franklin 

 and his brave companions, which is of course the main object of the 

 expedition. 



After doubling Cape Farewell, the most southern promontory of 

 Greenland, the line of the polar ice advances in a north-eastern direc- 

 tion along the east coast, sometimes enveloping Iceland as it proceeds, 

 until it reaches the island of Jan Mayen. Passing this island on the 

 north-west, but frequently inclosing it, the edge of the ice then trends 

 a little more to the eastward, and usually intersects the meridian of 

 Greenwich between 71 and 73 N. lat Having reached the longitude 

 of 5* or 6* east, and in some instances as far as 8 or 10, it changes 

 its direction at once, and by suddenly stretching to the north it forms 

 nearly a right angle, or a kind of promontory. Hence it proceeds 

 northward nearly in the same meridian as fur as the 80th parallel, 

 where it joins Hakluyt's Headland, and then passes southward along 

 the coast of Spitsbergen to Cherie Island, which is between Spitz- 

 bergen and the North Cape. Having passed this island it assumes a 

 more direct course a little to the south of east, until it forms a 

 junction with the ice inclosing the island of Nova-Zembla. 



That remarkable promontory midway between Jan Mayen and 

 Cherie islands, formed by the sudden stretch of the ice to the north, 

 constitutes the line of separation between the east, or whaling, and 

 the west, or sealing ice, of the fishers ; and the deep bay lying to the 

 east of this promontory and the west of Cherie Island, which may be 

 called the Whale-fisher's Bight, invariably forms the only pervious 

 track for proceeding to the fishing latitudes northward. W hen the 

 ice at the entrance of this bay occurs so strong and compact as to pre- 

 vent the approach to the shores of Spitsbergen and the advance north- 

 ward to lat. 74 and 76, it is said to be a ' clow season ; ' and, on the 

 contrary, it is called an ' open season ' when an uninterrupted naviga- 

 tion extends along the western coast of Spitsbergen to Hakluyt's 

 Headland. In an open season a large channel of water lies between 

 the land and the ice, from 60 to 150 nautical miles in breadth, extend- 

 ing to lat 79* and 80*, and gradually approaching the coast of Spitz- 

 bergen, until it at length effects a junction with the north-western 

 extremity of it or with Hakluyt's Headland, by a semi-circular bend. 

 But though in an open sen on the ice is interrupted between Green- 

 land and Spitsbergen, it preserves iU continuity to the south of the 

 latter islands, proceeding from thence direct to Cherie Inland. In a 

 close season the ice stretches across the entrance of the Whale-fisher's 

 Bight, and joining the south of Spitsbergen, forms a barrier against 

 the fishing stations ; yet this barrier is often of a limited extent, and 

 terminates on the coast of Spitsbergen in an open space, either forming 

 or leading to the retreat of the whales. This space however Is Home- 

 times frozen over until the middle or end of the month of May, but it 

 is not unfnquently free from ice. The barrier itself which is here 

 opposed to the Ashen at the entrance of the bay, usually consists of a 

 body of ice from 60 to 90 or even 120 miles across in the shortest 

 diameter, and is generally formed of smaller pieces of ice, called pack- 

 ice, often cemented into a continuous field by the intermixture of 

 newly-formed ice. Behind this barrier the sea is commonly open up 

 to 80*, and sometimes much farther. In summer this open space 

 appears to extend to the north-eastern extremity of Spitsbergen. The 

 barrier of ice which in a close season shut* up the entrance of the 

 Whale-fisher's Bight in May, disappears invariably in June, and then 

 the sea is rendered freely navigable from the very haunt of the whales 

 to UM expanse of the AUantk. 



Similar change* take place in the ice of Hudson's Bay, Baffin's Bay, 

 and Davis' a Strait The navigation of Hudson's Bay is first inter- 

 rupted by ice, generally in the month of November ; but on the east 

 side of Davis's Strait it does not usually make its appearance under 

 the laud until the spring. Little progress can be made through the 

 ice into the great bays of Hudson and Baffin until the months of June 

 and July, when a passage to the extremity of each bay is gradually 

 opened. In the months of August and September the ice of the bays 

 seems to be the most open ; and in the straits of Davis and Hudson 

 almost entirely dispersed. 



The ice met with in the sea between Greenland and Spitsbergen 

 consists commonly of ice-fields, or pieces consisting of a single sheet, 

 with its surface raised in general four or six feet above the level of 

 the sea, and its base depressed to the depth of from ten to twenty feet 

 beneath. But the deficiency in elevation is sufficiently compensated 

 by the amaring extent in surface, some of these ice-fields being many 

 leagues in length, and covering an area of several hundred square 

 miles. Ice-islands, or ice-bergs, are also found, but they are neither 

 so numerous nor so bulky as those of Baffin's Bay, where they attain 

 an immense size : that which was described by Captain Ross and 

 measured by Lieutenant Parry, was aground in sixty-one fathoms : it 

 was 4169 yards long, 3689 yards broad, and 51 feet high ; its weight 

 was calculated to amount to 1,292,397,673 tons. 



It is very probable that the ice which is brought down by the arctic 

 current to the very centre of the North Atlantic, originates in the Bay 

 of Baffin and the Strait of Davis, for it consist* almost entirely of ice- 

 bergs. When the sun returns to the arctic region, and the icy bonds 

 which connect these bodies with the continent have been dissolved, 

 they descend in numerous masses along the coasts of Labrador and 

 Newfoundland, some of them entering the Gulf of St. Lawrence by the 

 Strait of Belle Isle. From Newfoundland they advance farther to the 

 south and south-east, and are often met with in the Gulf Stream itself, 

 between 56 and 46 W. long., and as far south as 40 45' N. lat., from 

 the month of April to that of November. Some of them even hero 

 are of vast size, but all in a state of rapid thaw. They cool the water 

 sensibly to a distance of forty or fifty miles around them ; and the 

 thermometer sinks sometimes no leas than 17 or 18 degrees, from 61 

 or 60 to 43 in their neighbourhood. 



In the Southern Hemisphere the ice does not advance to such low 

 latitudes in any part of the sea. Captain Weddell did not see any 

 before he reached 57 30' S. lat. Having found it in a rather crowded 

 state between 59 and 69 to the north and south of that chain of 

 islands which are known under the names of the South Shetland* and 

 New Orkneys group, he arrived to the south of 70 lat in an open sea, 

 where not a particle of ice was found at 73 17' lat and 35 . 

 long., and oven at 74 15' only a few ice-islands were met with. Later 

 voyagers have only confirmed these facts. Farther to the west Captain 

 Sir J. Ross was in 1841 able to penetrate to 78 4' S. lat before he 

 was arrested by land, which was skirted by a barrier of ice extending 

 from ten to twenty luilea from the shore. The South Atlantic appears 

 then to be much less encumbered with ice than the North Atlantic, 

 probably because it contains much less land. 



Captain Cook observed that the ice about the Antarctic Polo in the 

 South Atlantic extended farther north than in the Pacific. Very few 

 vessels he says met with ice going round ('..] ll-ni, and very little in 

 observed below the 60th degree of lat in the Pacific. But between 

 the meridian 40 W. and 50 or 60 E., it advances as far north as 

 51*. He hence inferred the existence of a southern continent But it 

 is now known that the ice found at thU latitude owes its origin to the 

 chain of islands above mentioned, and to the extensive coast discovered 

 in the neighbourhood by Captain Biscoe, and that to the south of it 

 the sea is open and entirely free from ice. 



It may be considered as a peculiarity of the Atlantic Ocean that a 

 considerable part of its surface is covered with sargasso, or gulf-weed 

 (Fuciu natant). The region of this weed extends nearly across the 

 whole ocean, beginning on the east at the 30th meridian, and extend- 

 ing on the west to the Bahama Islands. Ita northern limit may bo 

 placed at 30 N. lat, and its wmthern at 19 N. lat, ; and it is the 

 habitation of countless numbers of marine animals. The whole region 

 however is nut equally crowded with weed, the greatest quantities 

 being met with at the eastern and western extremities, on the east, 

 nearly under the meridian of the islands of Corvo and Floras, the 

 most western of the Azores, where between lat 25 and 36, and 

 long. 80 and 32, it forms first a narrow stripe, but to the southward 

 expands to a great width. This region is called by the Portuguese 

 Mar de Sargasso, or ' weedy sea.' The quantity of the weed is really 

 astonishing. It covers like a mantle the surface of the sea for many 

 miles, and extends more than 1200 miles from north to south. The 

 western region extends between the parallels 22 and 26, about the 

 meridians of 70* and 72, where the weed also is found in a very 

 crowded state. The intermediate region is less so ; and it would even 

 seem that in some parts the sea is only lightly strewed with it, whilst 

 r* it is much more abundant It is observed that the greatest 

 mass of this weed is found at that part of the Atlantic where the 

 Gulf Stream terminates ; and the next great mass where the coun- 

 ter-current of the Gulf Stream, which runs along its southern border, 

 unites at the Bahamas with the drift-current of the North Atlantic. 

 Much of this weed in brought down by the Gulf Stream from the Sea 



