704 THE WORLD'S \VONDKRS. 



possible experiment upon the freezing of saltwater; the- first 

 crop of ice is salt, the second less so, the third produces drink- 

 able water, and the fourth is fresh. Frosty efflorescence appears 

 upon ice formed at low temperatures in calm weather it is brine 

 expressed by the act of freezing." 



Is it not possible that the commonly-accepted theory as to the 

 manner in which icebergs are formed, is false? If repeated con- 

 gelation destroys the saline crystallization of sea water, may not 

 a similar chemical decomposition take place under continuous 

 congealment? The rivers of Greenland, to whose debouchement 

 the formation of icebergs is ascribed, are yet to be discovered, 

 though the point of apparent iceberg formation has been visited. 

 It is an open question yet whether these ice-mountains are not 

 created under atmospheric influence. If, as seems to be well 

 proved, there is a comparatively warm climate prevailing about 

 the poles, the proximity of excessive cold and warm currents 

 would be productive of the most violent paroxysms of the air, 

 such as cyclones, waterspouts, etc. These might suck up vast 

 quantities of sea water, which would be precipitated again at 

 certain points, like the vapor of the gulf-stream, which condenses 

 and falls over England because it there first meets with a counter 

 cold current. If this uplifted water, now vaporized, should 

 strike against the mountain barriers along the Greenland coast, 

 it would certainly be precipitated in the form of rain, and meeting 

 with an intensely cold atmosphere, would congeal as it gradually 

 fell thus building up great peaks of fresh water ice just as we see 

 them. This theory might extend further with perfect consistency, 

 to account for icebergs of fresh water by repeated congelation, 

 for it is plausible to assume that there are air-stratas of hot and 

 cold at altitudes above the poles, passing through which the sea 

 water would alternate from rain to hail until the chemical change 

 to fresh water is complete. Not infrequently icebergs, or rather 

 glaciers, form in the interior of Greenland, and always at the; 

 feet of mountains or slopes to the sea ; after reaching a certain 

 Mze, gravity causes them to break loose and sweep into the sea, 

 cnirving with them great boulders, driftwood, or anything in 

 their path. 



