72 



A HISTORY OF 



is found to be salt; and is readilydistinguished 

 from the mountain or fresh-water ice, by its 

 whiteness, and want of transparency. This 

 ice is much more terrible to mariners than 

 that which rises up in lumps : a ship can 

 avoid the one, as it is seen at a distance ; but 

 it often gets in among the other, which some- 

 times closing, crushes it to pieces. This, 

 which manifestly has a different origin from 

 the fresh-water ice, may perhaps have been 

 produced in the Icy Sea, beneath the Pole ; or 

 along the coasts of Spitzberg, or Nova Zembla. 

 The mountain-ice, as was said, is different 

 in every respect, being formed of fresh-water, 

 and appearing hard and transparent; it is 

 generally of a pale green colour, though some 

 pieces are of a beautiful sky blue; many large 

 masses, also, appear gray; and some black. 

 If e::r.mined more nearly, they are found to 

 be incorporated with earth, stones, and brush- 

 wood, w r ashed from the shore. On these 

 also are sometimes found, not only earth, but 

 nests with birds' eggs, at several hundred 

 miles from land. The generality of these, 

 though almost totally fresh, have, neverthe- 

 less, a thick crust of salt-water frozen upon 

 them, probably from the power that ice has 

 sometimes to produce ice. Such mountains 

 as are here described, are most usually 

 seen at spring-time, and after a violent storm, 

 driving out to sea, where they at first terrify 

 the mariner, and are soon after dashed to 

 pieces by the continual washing of the waves; 

 or driven into the warmer regions of the 

 south, there to be melted away. They some- 

 times, however, strike back upon their native 

 shores, where they seem to take root at the 

 feet of mountains ; and, as Martius tells- us, 

 are sometimes higher than the mountains 

 themselves. Those seen by him were blue, 

 full of clefts and cavities made by the rain, 

 and crowned with snow, which alternately 

 thawing and freezing every year, augmented 

 their size. These, composed of materials 

 more solid than that driving at sea, presented 

 a variety of agreeable figures to the eye, that, 

 with a little help from fancy, assumed the 

 appearance of trees in blossom ; the inside 

 of churches, with arches, pillars, and win- 

 dows; and the blue coloured rays,darting from 

 within, presented the resemblance of a glory. 

 If we inquire into the origin and formation 



of these, which, as we see, are very different 

 from the former, I think we have a very satis- 

 factory account of them in Krantz's History 

 of Greenland; and I will take leave to give 

 the passage, with a very few alterations. 

 " These mountains of ice," says he, " are not 

 salt, like the sea-water, but sweet; and, 

 therefore, can be formed no where except 

 on the mountains, in rivers, in caverns, and 

 against the hills near the sea-shore. The 

 mountains of Greenland are so high, that the 

 snow which falls upon them, particularly on 

 the north side, is, in one night's time, wholly- 

 converted into ice : they also contain clefts 

 and cavities, where the sun seldom or never 

 injects his rays : besides these, are projec- 

 tions, or landing places, on the declivities of 

 the steepest hills, where the rain and snow- 

 water lodge, and quickly congeal. When 

 now the accumulated Hakes of snow slide 

 down, or fall with the rain from the eminences 

 above on these prominences; or, when here 

 and there a mountain-spring comes rolling 

 down to such a lodging place, where the ice 

 has already seated itself, they all freeze, and 

 add their tribute to it. This, by degrees, 

 waxes to a body of ice, that can no more be 

 overpowered by the sun ; and which, though 

 it may indeed, at certain seasons, diminish 

 by a thaw, yet, upon the whole, through an- 

 nual acquisitions, it assumes an annual 

 growth. Such a body of ice is often promi- 

 nent far over the rocks. It does not melt on 

 the upper surface, but underneath ; and often 

 cracks into many larger or smaller clefts, 

 from whence the thawed water trickles out. 

 By this it becomes, at last, so weak, that be- 

 ing overloaded with its own ponderous bulk 

 it breaks loose and tumbles down the rocks 

 with a terrible crash. Where it happens to 

 overhang a precipice on the shore, it plung- 

 es into the deep with a shock like thunder : 

 and with such an agitation of the water, as 

 will overset a boat at some distance, as many 

 a poor Greenlander has fatally experienced." 

 Thus are these amazingice mountains launch- 

 ed forth to sea, and found floating in the wa- 

 ters round both the Poles. It is these that have 

 hindered mariners from discovering the ex- 

 tensive countries that lie round the South 

 Pole : and that probably block up the pas 

 sage to China bv the North. 



