WARM DAY. 159 



also jammed too tightly together for boats 

 readily to penetrate amongst it. The vast ac 

 cumulation of drift-ice in the Spitsbergen seas 

 consists partly of flat tabular slabs of all sizes, 

 from, that of an acre downwards, which have 

 composed part of the winter s growth on the 

 shallow bays and gulfs of the coast, and partly 

 of rough irregular masses which have become 

 detached from the ice-cliffs of the glaciers. 

 Some of these latter pieces I have observed to 

 be carrying large stones, which, by the way, 

 I have frequently mistaken for seals, and very 

 many of them are charged with such quan 

 tities of dark-coloured mud or clay, that the 

 sea is in places sometimes discoloured for 

 many miles around by their washings. 



This was one of the finest and warmest days 

 I ever knew in Spit zber gen, the thermometer 

 was 55 in the cabin, and in the sun it was 

 actually hot. The summer s warmth has had 

 a perceptible effect upon the ice, much of 

 which we observe to be undermined and honey 

 combed, or &quot; rotten,&quot; as the sailors call it ; it 

 always seems to decay fastest &quot; between wind 

 and water,&quot; so that enormous caverns get 

 excavated in the sides of the bergs. 



Nothing can exceed the beauty of these 



