52 MEMOIR OF PENNANT. 



Before quitting these regions, we shall give Pen- 

 nant's description of the fantastic appearance of the 

 ice. " The forms assumed by the ice in this chill- 

 ing climate, are extremely pleasing to even the most 

 incurious eye. The surface of that which is con- 

 gealed from the sea-water (for I must allow it two 

 origins) is flat and even, hard, opake, resembling 

 white sugar, and incapable of being slid on like the 

 British ice. The greater pieces, or fields, are many 

 leagues in length ; the lesser, are the meadows of 

 the seals, on which these animals, at times, frolic 

 by hundreds. The motion of the lesser pieces is 

 rapid as the currents ; the greater, which are some- 

 times two hundred leagues long and sixty or eighty 

 broad, move slow and majestically ; often fix for a 

 time immoveable by the power of the ocean, and 

 there produce, near the horizon, that bright white 

 appearance called by mariners the blink of the ice. 

 The approximation of two great fields produces a 

 most singular phenomenon. It forces the lesser (if 

 the term can be applied to pieces of several acres 

 square) out of the water, and adds them to their 

 surface. A second and often a third succeeds ; so 

 that the whole form an aggregate of tremendous 

 height. These float in the sea, like so many rug- 

 ged mountains ; and are sometimes five or six 

 hundred yards thick ; but the far greater part is 

 concealed beneath the water. These are continually 

 increased in height by the freezing of the spray of 

 the sea, or of the melting of the snow which falls 





