488 
Greenland. January 1809, six were observed at the same time, all of 
Aurora 
Rorealis. 
Meteors. 
Ice, 
a pale yellow colour. The remotest was paler than the 
others.—See Hato. : BE 
Of all the» phenomena peculiar. to this country, 
the aurora borealis is the most beautiful. It streams 
here with» peculiar lustre, and with a variety of co- 
Jours, which, having great brilliancy, sometimes dart 
their sportive fire, and fill the whole horizon with the 
most beautiful tints of the rainbow. They are very 
rarely, observed in the north of .the horizon, ecom~- 
monly in theeast and in the zenith. They appear some- 
times to stand very low, and then they are much agita- 
ted, ahd-a crashing and crackling sound .is heard like 
that .of an electric spark, or of the falling hail.’ They 
ave more frequent and more powerful fromthe 60th to 
the 67th degree than in higher latitudes... The Green- 
lariders believe, that they are the souls of the ‘deceased 
fighting together in the air. 
»* Another very curious optical phenomenon presents it- 
self, partly in clear, partly in thin foggy weather,’» The 
islands lying at a distance from the continent ‘appear to 
approach to the spectator, and to increase in sizes: ‘They 
form to the eye various and peculiar groups, very dif- 
ferent from their proper shape. At other moments they 
appear 'to hang in the air. If this phenomenon:appears 
with respect to the islands which lie in the south, south- 
erly winds will follow ; if the object be in the west, west~ 
erly winds may be expected. The winds decrease gene- 
rally after sun-set. ©  aeay 
Fire-balls are rarely seen in this country, although one 
was observed in the year 1808, taking a direction from 
north-west to south-east. The comet of 1807 was first ob- 
served on the 4th October, in the north-west ; and that of 
1811 on the 4th September, in the north, and disap 
the 14th January. Thunder is very seldom heard, but 
sometimes flashes of lightning are seen. The air is ex~ 
tremely pure and light; the rains are. not of long con- 
tinuance ; and the heat, particularly in the islets, is asto- 
nishing, being caused principally by the reflection of the 
solar beams from the mountains. The saline particles of the 
sea-water are frequently found crystallised on the shores. 
In the month of July, the thermometer of Reaumur 
rises in the shade to 24 degrees, (86° of Fahrenheit). The 
moskitos (culex pipiens) are at that time as painful and 
troublesome as in a southern climate. 
The ice, which embarrasses the polar regions, and diss 
turbs the navigation, is of different kinds, some of it being 
of fresh water, some of salt water. The former is clear, 
very bard, brittle, having an appearance entirely glassy, 
and presenting sometimes colours of the finest pale emerald 
green, or the brightestsky- blue; whencutin pieces, thefrag- 
ments ure as sharp edged as those of rock crystal. The ice 
of'salt water has the appearance of frozen snow, is greyish 
white, not transparent, and has generally a clammy cohe- 
tency ; when very thin, it is flexible, to a certain degree, 
under the step of a man. _It coagulates in small spheroi- 
dal particles; whereas that of fresh water presents rather 
acieular and prismatic forms. ‘The fresh-water ice forms 
tremendous masses and mountains of different magni- 
tndes, and wonderful shapes, sometimes rising more than» 
500 feet over the surface of the'water. The salt ice oc« 
eurs always in flakes, called by the mariners ice fields, 
Sometimes of many thousand fathoms in length and 
breadth, divided by fissures, but following close to each 
other.» These flakes of driving ice are not found so large 
in Davis Straits, as between the east coast of Greenland 
GREENLAND. ae 
and Spitzbergen. The surface of the salt ice is gene» 
rally covered with a crystalline crust, deposited by hoar 
frost or snow ; it has‘a mealy or sandy ‘surface, and be- 
comes brackish by the tides. The salt ice never forms 
large mountains. On the shores, however, where the sea 
freezes, the mass becomes enlarged by the effect of the 
tides, and by stormy weather, which breaks the ice, and’ 
heaps it up. tia 
Ice mountains are 
reaching to the sea. As they melt in summer ‘at the 
base, where they are in contact with the rock, ‘they ge 
rift; and at last, losing their points: of suppor 
plunge into the sea witha thundering noise ; an awful a 
imposing spectacle, which may. be seen in the Ice 
: © kote: | 
formed, during a series of years, in’ Ice 1 
the inlets and bays, in valleys, or on precipitous’ rocks ins. 
near Disko island, particularly at the time of the tides: — 
These mountains very often enclose vegetable substances, 
earth, and stones; and are sometimes so large as to 
reach to the bottom of the sea, a depth of more than 300 
fathoms, until they lose somewhat: of their mass, and 
roll over. Immense masses of ice’ are driven out from 
the Ice Bay in the tides, at the time of high water, cos 
vering the sea of Disko Bay, to a distance of many miles. 
The driving ice which comes from Spitzbergen, is ge 
nerally seen at Cape Farewell in the month of May, set-_ 
ting over to. the eastern coast of Davis Straits; but it 
returns again with south-west and west winds, filling all 
the bays and inlets of the south of Greenland, and is 
again thrown out from the land by the easterly winds; 
This ice is always followed by impenetrable fogs ; a cirs’ 
cumstance, which makes it much more dangerous to nas 
vigators. The specific gravity of the 
its density or porosity. , 
the ice round Cape Farewell, affords great relief both to ™ 
the poor Greenlanders and the European settlers. It 
furnishes materials to the natives to roof their houses, to 
support their tents, to strengthen their canoes, to shaft. 
their instruments, and to prepare their utensils. It sup- 
plies the Europeans with building materials and fuel. - It 
is very difficult to say from what country these timbers - 
come; undoubtedly from a very remote land, washed 
away from shores covered with forests. The timber is ale 
ways much injured, generally without bark or roots, and ~ 
great part of it is worm-eaten by the Pholas teredo, (Te- 
redo navalis, Lin.) It is mostly found in the small bays 
of those islands which are nearest to the open sea. © © 
The continent of Greenland is surrounded by many 
thousand islands of different sizes, upon which the Green= 
landers generally reside, on account of their good situas 
tion for sea-game. The continent of Greenland itself-is 
of them.100 miles in length, Their direction is gene» } 
intersected by innumerable bays, inlets, and on gene 
rally from south-west to north-east ; and some 
far as the tremendous glacier which covers uninterrupt- 
edly the middle of the continent; and separates the east 
coast from the west. The connection of these firths with — 
the large continental ice causes the numerous ice-mouns 
tains which plunge down in the summer, and are driven 
by the currents into the open sea. The most remarkable 
of the firths are, 1. Tunugliarbik, and 2. th, 
both in the 60th degree of latitude; these reach to the 
glacier, and are generally full of floating ice. 3. Sermis 
larsuk, the same firth or bay which is marked on the. 
charts with the name Forbisher or Frobisher Strait, but 
falsely, as this bay extends to the great continental iglae ; 
¢ 
a 
ee en ee Oe 
ice depends upon 
The floating timber, mostly pine, which comes with ; 
