338 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 



mitigating its cold, the climate of England approximating to that of Italy, and vineyards 

 flourishing where apple-trees now can with difficulty be reared. 



The " rent ice formations of the poles are due to the spherical form of the earth, and 

 the obliquity of its axis, by which the presence of the sun is entirely withdrawn from 

 arctic and antarctic regions for a considerable portion of the year, when intense frost 

 reigns through the long and dreary night that prevails. In high northern latitudes, as 

 early as the month of August, snow begins to fall, and a formation of ice rapidly ensues. 

 The hoar-frost covers with fantastic clusters every prominence on land ; and the frost- 

 smoke appears upon the sea, giving it the aspect of a vast steaming lime-kiln, the vapour 

 being produced by the temperature of the water being relatively higher than that of the 

 incumbent atmosphere. The fresh water poured from rivulets, or drained from the 

 former collections of snow, becomes quickly congealed along the shores and bays, and 

 the surface of the ocean is converted into one solid mass of ice, to some distance from 

 the coasts. Parry found the Bay of the Hecla and Griper, in which he passed the 

 winter, in N.lat. 74 44' 20", and W.long. 110, so completely covered with new ice by 

 the middle of September, that his men were obliged to open a canal with saws to 

 admit the passage of the ships ; an operation which occupied the greatest part of three 

 days, during which they cut through more than two miles of new ice, the average thick 

 ness of which was seven inches. The sun left them on the llth November, in a scene 

 marked with death-like stillness, dreary desolation, and the total absence of animated 

 existence. The silence was only interrupted occasionally by the sound of their own 

 voices, which could easily be heard at the distance of a mile, owing to the peculiar state 



of the atmosphere, and the absence of all obstruction in a scene of universal calm. At the 

 shortest day, or rather what in that latitude is the middle of the long night, there was a 

 little light afforded at noon, so that print could be read, but only by turning it directly 

 towards the south. On February 3d the upper limb of the sun was seen from the Hecla's 

 main top, after an absence of eighty-four days ; and on the 7th of the month his full orb 

 was above the horizon. It was not, however, till the 30th of April that the thermometer 

 rose to the freezing, or rather thawing point, having been below it for nearly eight months. 

 The first ptarmigan made its appearance on the 12th of May ; the first shower of rain in the 



