SIMTZBERGEN AND GREENLANJ). o5 



use to them to prevent the danger of the squeezing of the 

 ice ; they have examples, that in such squeezing of the ice a 

 dead xohale hath preserved them. 



The ice rises out of the sea as high as a mountain ; the 

 striking of them together makes so great a noise, that one 

 can hardly hear his own words ; and from this joyning 

 together of the ice the great ice-hills are made, that drive up 

 and down in the sea. 



Other great ice-fields are not so high as the ice-hills, yet 

 notwithstanding they are hardly ever quite plain and without 

 a hill ; you sec the ice under water as deep as you can see. 

 It is all of a blew colour, but the deeper you look the purer 

 a blew you see ', which beautiful colour changes with the 

 air, for if it be rainy weather this colour groweth j^aler. I 

 also have often seen the ice under the water very green, the 

 occasion thereof was the troubled air, whence the sea as- 

 sumeth this colour. 



I wonder that upon the largest ice-fields no high moun- 

 tains are seen, as are seen where the ice grinds and dashes 

 one against the other. 



I am of opinion, that the ice melts towards the bottoms, 

 for one may see it spvmgy, for else if one would compute 

 from the beginning, it must have reached the very ground 

 even in the middle of the depth of the sea. I have seen in 

 Spitzhergen white ice that was frozen quite curled, it look'd 

 just like sugar-candy, was very hard and thick, and swam 

 even with the seas surface. The shi^^s are not always in 

 this danger of squeezing, for oftentimes there is little or no 

 ice to be seen there, although you are a great way in the 

 place where it usually is ; but as soon as a wind arises, you 

 would admire from whence so great a quantity of ice should 

 come in less than an hour's time. 



At the greatest ice-fields of all, ships do not always ride 

 the safest ; since by reason of the bigness and motion of the 

 sea, these icefields break not without danger. 



