LABRADOR JOURNAL 355 



gets clearer of drift ice than usual, when a gale 

 of wind happening from the southward, sends in 

 such a swell as rips up the whole, and divides it 

 into many pieces, resembling stupendous white 

 rocks, which are slowly di'agged to the south- 

 ward by the current. As several of those islands 

 mav be some years before thev arrive in a climate 

 that is capable of dissolving them, it is more than 

 probable, that in the mean time, they gain more 

 in the course of each winter, than they lose in the 

 intermediate summer/ When they have ad- 

 vanced some distance to the southward, they thaw 

 so much faster under water than they do above it, 

 that they lose their equili])rium, upset, and fall 

 in pieces; otherwise, I verily believe that some of 

 them would drive almost to the equinoctial line, 

 before they were entirely dissolved. 



The jam-ice ^ is formed upon the coast, by the 

 freezing of the water on the surface of the sea, 

 and ])y the snow which falls into it, and is driven 

 together by the wind, until it is ten or twelve feet 

 thick, and cemented, in the course of the winter, 

 by the penetrating power of the frost; which, 

 having formed the surface into a solid body, 

 strikes through it, and acts with piercing vigour 

 equally on what ever it touches below; and the 

 w^ater, at that time being as cold as possilde to 

 remain in a flnid state, gives ])ut little resistance 

 to the action of tlic frost. T am r-onfirmod in this 



' This theory in oxplanation of tho formation of icobprRn iH of rourBP 

 orroncous. C'artwriKht was iKnomnt of thoir formation by tlic bronkinK 

 off of Ifirj^e masHcs fnnn glacierH ut tlieir entrance into the sea. 



» Floe. 



