S50 



part of rocks, against which the whole of the Atlan- 

 tic ocean from the pole is incessantly lashing its waves 

 with inconceivable force. For seven months or more, 

 these rocks are covered with ice, and frozen, perhaps, to 

 the centre. Now there is no other way of resolving this 

 ice, that I know of, but by the operation of heat, which 

 commences about the beginning of April, or at the ap- 

 proaching summer solstice, during which they are left 

 bare and exposed. Yet although these changes have 

 been annually repeated, probably for thousands of 

 years, they discover few or no signs of decomposition. 

 On the contrary, they are as free from it as that of a 

 similar range which protects the coast of Brazil, in the 

 torrid zone, for more than two thousand miles in 

 length. This we are enabled \o determine by these 

 facts alone, in which there is no deception; that is they 

 are still craggy, angular and pointed. 



" By such a rampart (says Pont Oppidan) consist- 

 ing of, perhaps, a million, or more, of massy stone 

 pillars, founded in the very depth of the sea, the 

 chapiters of which rise only a few fathoms above the 

 surface, all Norway is defended to the west, equally 

 against the enemy, and against the ocean." 



Mr. Heriot, in describing the country to the north of 

 the river St. Lawrence, says that no country can pre- 

 sent a more wild aspect ; that it is composed of rocks, 

 and " cannot boast ^of an acre of soil capable of 

 yielding any useful production."* 



* Heriot's Travels, page 58. 



