I C E. 



639 



'- extent these masses may be detached during summer in 

 ~*~^* regions nearer Uie pole than any that have hitherto 

 been navigated, we cannot determine ; but it is not 

 improbable, that from this source many of the loose 

 iceberg* are derived which are found floating to the west 

 of the islands of Spitsbergen. It is probable that many 

 are alo formed on the eastern coasts of these islands, 

 which are more favourable to such a process. But 

 the numbers of these enormous masses that come by 

 Davis's Straits are by far the greatest, and the coast of 

 Newfoundland is often crowded with them. They 

 gradually dissolve as they move to the southward ; but 

 some have been found in Lat. 40, 2100 miles from 

 their source. 



These lofty masse* are formed partly by the accu- 

 mulation of drifted snow first slightly softened by 

 the summer heat, and acquiring an augmented soli- 

 dity by a subsequent process of congelation. It is 

 probable' that their high peaks receive accessions 

 from the falling moiture, which is more readily o.n- 

 pealed than that which lies lower, the temperature be- 

 ing lowest at the highest elevations. We mentioned 

 under the article COLD an ingenious conjecture of Pro- 

 fessor Leslie, that they attained their great height by 

 the deposition of hygrometfic water from the air as- 

 cending from the surrounding ocean in a manner ana- 

 logous to those rising peaks of ice which are formed in 

 the congelations produced in the ingenious process for 

 freezing water by it* own evaporation, of which that 

 philosopher is the invent"!-. Hut we may be allowed 

 to suspend our entire acquiescence in thi* opinion 

 till it >* ascertained how tar these formations them- 

 selves may ariie from a cause totally different, viz. 

 the elevation of moisture by the capillary attract!* n of 

 the previously f-rroed crystal. We know that this is 

 the node in which timilar peaks are formed during 

 the temirely crystallization of certain neutral salt < In- 

 evaporation. If a solution of muriate of ammonia i - It it 



.. 

 <j. 



Ice. 



for Mine day* to evaporate spontaneously in a glass, 

 appearances of the same kind are presented. 



The shelter created by iceberg* is often highly useful 

 to the whalers, by protecting them from gales, as 

 well as from the concussion* of drift ice, as the latter 

 moves more quickly, requiring a shorter duration of 

 the wind in one direction to attain its utmost velocity. 

 The strip* are sometimes moored to the icebergs for se- 

 ; but this situation is not without it* danger*. 

 The ma*rs are sometime* so nicely balanced as to be 

 easily overturned. They (onetime* catch the bottom 

 in place* comparatively shallow, though still of great 

 depth, and the effect of the concussion is to detach 

 large pieces from them, or to cause the whole mass 

 above water to plunge forward under the surface, 

 and the vessel moored to them is staved and wrecked. 

 The tame elect is produced by the rising of immense 

 calve*. These occurrences sometimes happen when 

 the ship ride* at a distance of 10O yard* from the emer- 

 gent part The motions are indeed of so tremendous 

 magnitude, that a vessel is sometimes lost by the vast 

 waves and whirl* which they occasion, which over- 

 whelm every smaller object within a considerable dis- 

 tance of the rolling mountu'n. Icebergs often prove 

 useful by ^applying the *hip with fresh water, which 

 i* found collected in large wells on the surface, and is 

 let down into the vessel by a cylindrical piece of can- 

 vas called a kntt. 



The irregular outline of the fixed polar ice, and the 

 i to which it is subjected in the course of yean, 



are highly interesting. Before the 15th century, the 

 eastern coast of West Greenland was free from ice in 

 summer, and could be freely approached by ships. 

 After a considerable trade had for 400 years been car- 

 ried on between Iceland and that country, which WHS 

 inhabited by a large and flourishing colony, the pohu 

 ice suddenly exceeded its former limits, launched down 

 in a direction nearly parallel to the coast as far as the 

 southern Cape, and barricadoed the whole coast in such 

 a manner as to render it ever since inaccessible. The 

 fate of the colony is unknown. If the increased seve- 

 rity of the climate was insufficient to destroy it, this 

 effect was inevitable from the destruction of all the re- 

 sources on which it depended. The mass of ice ly- 

 ing between Old or West Greenland and the northern 

 part of Russia on the cast, though -varying in different 

 seasons, presents a striking uniformity in its general 

 outline. After doubling the southern promontory of 

 Greenland, it advances in a north-eastern direction, 

 half enveloping Iceland in close seasons, till it reaches 

 the small island called John Mayne's Island, which it 

 frequently encloses. It then trends a little more to the 

 eastward, and intersects the meridian of London in 

 the 71st or 72d degree of latitude. Having reached 

 the longitude of 6, 8, or 10 degrees cast in the 73d or 

 74th degree of latitude, it suddenly stretches to the north ; 

 sometimes proceeding on one meridian to the latitude of 

 SO", at others forming a deep sinuosity, extending only 

 two or three degrees northward, then south-easterly to 

 Cherry Island; it then assumes a straight course a little 

 south of east, till it forms a junction with the coast of 

 Nova Zembla. 



On the whole, the tendency to a fixed state of the 

 ice is greatest on the eastern sides of land. These are 

 rendered peculiarly cold, from the westerly winds ha- 

 ving had their temperature reduced by blowing over 

 the eternal snow and ice of the continents. These winds 

 are in their origin warmer than the east, as they gene- 

 rally originate in southerly situations ; whereas the east 

 winds, originating in the north, are less liable to a re- 

 duction of temperature in passing over a frozen conti- 

 nent. Thus the eastern shores are exposed to all the 

 original coldness of the east winds when they blow, 

 and to an additional coldness acquired by the west 

 winds ; while the western shores are wafted by the 

 west winds in tht ir mild state, in which they keep up 

 a liquefying process, a quality which they lose after 

 traversing the land. It is well known, that south-west 

 anil north-east winds are more common in the northern 

 hemisphere than the north-west or the south-east. 

 Winds that blow directly from the west tend to pro- 

 duce a perpetual extension of the i*e ; but the south- 

 west winds give that form to its boundary which we 

 find it actually to possess, i. e. a line stretching to the 

 north-east. But why, at one period, the coast should 

 for centuries be free from ice, and at another period be 

 perenially lined with it, is one of those phenomena in 

 the changes of climate, for which, like many others in 

 meteorology, we cannot account. For an illustration 

 of the circumstances now stated, we refer to the mete- 

 orological Essays of Mr Dal ton. See also our article 

 METEOROLOGY. The firm of the outline of the ice va- 

 ries however according to the direction and force of 

 storms and currents. 



The deep bay formed by the boundary of the ice to Whale fish- 

 the wet of Spitsbergen, is the only track for proceed- '"ft ** of 

 ing to the fishing latitudes hi the north. In close sea- s P" lber " 

 sons, the ice at toe extremity of this bay is to close, that * tn ' 



