THE OCEAN. 345 



exposed to the full force of the agency in question. Nearly a thousand seamen, during 

 this season of peril, were obliged by the wreck of their vessels to commit themselves to 

 the ice, saving what food and clothing the time admitted of being preserved, and were 

 ultimately brought off in safety by other vessels. 



The " deep sea fryseth not." This was a notion of the ancient mariners, once held, too, 

 by some of the learned, on the ground of its saltness, but sufficiently refuted by modern 

 observation. In the severe winter of the year 1348, the ocean was completely frozen over 

 around Iceland, so as to admit of the inhabitants riding on horseback from one promontory 

 to another at some distance from the shore. It is found that sea-water, containing the 

 ordinary quantity of saline ingredients, freezes at the temperature of about 27 Fahren- 

 heit, five degrees below the freezing point of fresh water ; but as the arctic winters vary 

 in their severity, like those of the temperate zones, some seasons being comparatively 

 mild, the amount of ice formed varies correspondingly. Hence some navigators have 

 found the sea open at one period, where to others it has presented an impassable icy bar- 

 rier at the same season in a different year, and the latter have found it impossible to 

 penetrate to the high latitudes reached by the former. Several of the early adventurers 

 to the polar seas succeeded in advancing to extreme northerly points. Davis, in 1587, 

 attained to the latitude of 72 12' ; Baffin, in 1616, to 78 ; Hudson, in 1607, to 81 ; and 

 Captain M'Cullam, in 1751, to 83 -J, where he found the sea still open to the north. 

 This was remarkably the case in the year 1754, when Captain Wilson passed through 

 floating ice between the latitudes of 74 and 81, where he found a completely clear sea, 

 and advanced as high as 83. During the same year, a southerly wind, which blew for 

 several days, carried Mr. Stephens from the coast of Spitzbergen ; and he actually reached 

 the latitude of 84 1, meeting with very little ice in his passage, and experiencing no 

 excessive cold. The elder Scoresby, in 1806, attained the latitude of 81 50'; but, in 

 the year succeeding, he was unable to pass beyond 78. The obstacles presented by the 

 ice have hitherto prevented the northern coast-line of the western continent from being 

 traced ; but there can be little doubt of the fact that the north-west passage from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific will be effected, though it can never be productive of any prac- 

 tical benefit to commerce, but is simply a point of geographical interest and scientific 

 importance. 



Of the two principal basins in which the waters of the ocean chiefly roll the Atlantic 

 and the Pacific the coast line of the former is the most extensive, though its superficial 

 area is far less than that of the latter. 



European shores of the Atlantic from the Strait of "Waigatz between the island of that name 



and the main land of Archangel, tot he Strait of Kaffa, at the entrance of the Sea of Azov- 1 7,000 miles. 

 Asian shores along the Black Sea, the sea of Marmora, and the Mediterranean Sea - 3,000 

 African shores along the Mediterranean - 2,000 



West African shores from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Cape of Good Hope - - 6,000 



Whole eastern shores of the Atlantic - - 28,000 



American shores of the Atlantic, including Greenland as a part of the continent, though 



probably incorrect - - 20,000 



Whole coast line of the Atlantic - 48,000 



American shores of the Pacific Ocean from Cape Horn to Behring's Strait - - 11,000 



Asian shores of the Pacific - - 24,50O 



African shores of the Pacific -_-_-* 6,000 



Whole coast line of the Pacific - - - 41,500 



The greater geographical extent of the outline of the Atlantic is due to its numerous 



