70 Dr. Fothergill’s account of ice islands. 
fore. The disasters occasioned by them among ships during the 
above period were fully detailed in the public prints, and are still fresh 
in remembrance, particularly those of the Jupiter, Capt. Law, from 
London, in latitude 44° 20’ longitude 49°, and the Sally, Capt. Bigby, 
latitude 42° 30’ longitude 50°, both of which vessels bilged and sunk, 
with a considerable part of the crews! A British packet foundered, 
and many other ships were greatly damaged by the ice. | From ob- 
servation it appears, that during the spring of 1805 from latitude 40° 
to 47° and from longitude 44° to 57° (a wide expanse of sea) the nav- 
igation of the Atlantic was_peculiarly hazardous. The preceding 
winter indeed had been uncommonly severe, and the cold weather ex- 
tended more Steen aaa sto. she. sucreeding spring. Part of the en- 
suing st er for a high degree of heat, be- 
ing at times from 90° to 96° of Fahrenheits't thetNiowietir: 
Respecting their origin the general opinion is, that iene grad- 
ually formed by accumulations of ice within the arctic and antarctic 
circles, and are carried by tides and currents to different latitudes, 
But if they are found, as Erwin and others alledge, not only in the 
Atlantic, but also in the Baltic, the Euxine, the Asiatic, and the Pa- 
cific oceans, how can we suppose them capable of traversing such 
temperate seas and warm regions, without undergoing a more speedy 
liquefaction ?- Hence the frozen seas of the arctic aud antarétic cjr- 
cles cannot be considered as the only sources where ice islands are 
exclusively generated ; nor can the liquefaction of the polar ices ex- 
plain the regular periodical return of the ti ides, as the Abbe St. Pierre. 
fancied, when he vainly attempted to overturn the doctrine of solar 
and lunar influence, established by the immortal Newton. 
The origin of ice islands therefore still remains in obscurity, and 
may possibly, at length, be found, where it was least suspected. If 
it be true, accordin g to some late observations, that the temperature 
