MEMOIR OF PENNANT. 53 



on them. Those which remain in this frozen 

 ciimate, receive continual growth ; others are gra- 

 dually wafted by the northern winds into southern 

 latitudes, and melt hy degrees hy the heat of the 

 sun, till they waste away, or disappear in the bound - 

 less element. 



" The collision of the great fields of ice in the 

 high latitudes, is often attended with a noise that 

 for a time takes away the sense of hearing any 

 thing else ; and the lesser, with a grinding of un- 

 speakahle horror. The water which dashes against 

 the mountainous ice, freezes into an infinite variety 

 of forms, and gives the voyager ideal towers, streets, 

 churches, steeples, and every shape that imagination 

 can frame. 



"The icehergs or glaciers of the north-east of 

 Spitzhergen, are among the capital wonders of the 

 country ; they are seven in number, but at consider- 

 able distances from each other. Each fills the 

 valley for tracts unknown, in a region totally in- 

 accessible in the internal parts. The glaciers of 

 Switzerland seem contemptible to these, but present 

 often a similar front in some lower valley. The 

 last exhibits, over the sea, a front three hundred 

 feet high, emulating the emerald in colour. Cata- 

 racts of melted snow precipitate down various parts, 

 and black spiring mountains, streaked with white, 

 bound the sides, and rise crag above crag, as far as 

 eye can reach in the back ground. At times im- 

 mense fragments break off, and tumble into the 



