242 



Arctic Explorations. 



"This is a subject well wortliy of future examination. The dissolution 

 of the great ice-fields of the Polar regions bears upon physical questions 

 of the highest importance ; and it reaJly seems to me that changes, inde- 

 pendent of expansion and contraction, must take place in the molecular 

 condition of the ice at temperatures greatly below the freezing point " — 

 First Cruise^ pp. 391-392. 



Dr. Kane also alludes to an action like endosmosis from the 

 ools of fresli water above and salt water below, as probably 

 aving some effect. Bat if so, it would be confined to the salt 

 seas. The basaltic character of tlie ice, and its becoming perme- 

 ated With water and breaking up into prisms, has been noticed 

 on Lake Champlain by Dr. Hatch of Burhngtonj Vermont. The 

 swell of the ocean is an important agent in the final destruction 

 of the floe in tlie polar regions, and a storm gives it great power. 

 In the gradual wasting of some bergs, they became covered 

 with circular depressions a foot in diameter; and one tall and 

 slender one was so strikingly spotted in this way that Dr. Kane 

 gave it the name of the Griraffe. No sufficient reason for the 

 peculiarity is mentioned. 



We cite a few sentences on the rolling over of a berg and 

 some of their movements : 



"Nothing can he more imposing than the rotation of a berg. I have 

 often watched one, rocking its earth-stained sides in steadily-deepening 

 curves, as if to gather energy for some desperate gymnastic feat; an 

 then turning itself slowly over in a monster somerset, and vibrating as its 

 head rose into the new element, like a leviathan shaking the water frora 

 its crest. It was impossible not to have suggestions tlirust upon me of 

 their agency in modifying the geological disposition of. the earth's sur- 

 face." — p. 455. 



"The berg is beyond all doubt a most important agent in modifying 

 the soundings upon the coast. The grounded bergs oft' Disco are known 

 to leave troughs, plowed by their projecting tongues, as they float au^ 

 ground with the rise and fall of the tides. Where the bottom is of nnid 

 and till, as is the case on the west coast generally, this action must be 

 very marked ; for on a berg I surveyed trigonometrically in July, which 

 had grounded in soundings of five hundred and twenty feet, the great 

 tap-root that anchored it to the bottom adnn'tted of an easy rotation, and 

 the berg swung upon its axis with each change of the tide. — p. 458. 



c turf. — The following description of the turf found in 



Speak- 



Arctic r 



It, although published in the earlier work of Dr. Kane. 



ing of a small cove near lat. 76°, the author thus writes 



'■Strange as it soeraed, on the iiumediate level of snow and ice, tlia 

 constant infiltrations, aided hy solar reverberation, had made an Arctic 

 garden-spot. The surface of the moss, owing, probably, to the extreme 

 alternations of heat and cold, was divided into regular hexagons and 

 other polyhedral figures, and scattered over these, nestling between the 



