hy Cy By Ey Ae Bey D. 
The fea which furrounds Jceland is faid to be more falt than ufual in other 
countries, It leaves great faline incruftations on the rocks, which the natives 
fcrape off and ufe. I can, with no certainty, give the depth of the water, ex- 
cept where Mr. Kerguelin founded, ten leagues to the weft of Geir-fugl Skier, 
where he found it to be two hundred and five fathoms *. The equinoétial 
tides rife as high as fixteen feet: the ordinary tides twelve +. The coafts almoft 
univerfally bold, thofe of the inlets excepted, where there appears a fmall 
ftrand. 
The bays, efpecially thofe of the fouth, which lie under the influence of the cold 
of Greenland, are annually frozen over; that of Patrixfiord was fhut up even as: 
late as the 14th of MZay}: but the fea near the coafts never feels the influence 
of the froft. It is in thofe places deep, and agitated by a moft turbulent motion. 
The dreaded ice is what floats from Greenland and Spitzbergen, and often fills, 
during the whole fummer, the ftreight between the former and this ifland ||, and even 
extends along the northern coaft, covering the fea toa vaft diftance from land. It 
confifts of the two fpecies, the mountanous ice, called Fiel-jakar ; and the fmooth 
ice of inconfiderable thicknefs, ftyled Hellu-is. Thefe arrive generally in Fa- 
nuary, and go away in March.. Sometimes it does not touch the land till 4pri/, 
when it fixes for aconfiderable time, and’ brings to the Jéelanders the moft tre- 
mendous evils ; a multitude of polar bears, which fpread. their ravages far and 
wide among the cattle ; and a cold of incredible violence, which chills the air 
for many miles, and even caufes the horfes and fheep to drop down dead §. To 
this is attributed the ftunted ftate of the miferable woods of the country ; which 
caufe muft have exifted from the commencement of its iron age ;. for there feems to 
have been.a period in which there had been confiderable wooded tracts q. 
The bottom of the fea is probably rocky; for it abounds with greater variety of 
fuci than Great Britain, which give fhelter to fifhes innumerable ; a fource of wealth 
to the natives (were they permitted the free ufe) as they.are of food to diftant 
nations, the veffels of which annually refort here to fifh, .but»without any com- 
merce with the Icelanders, which is ftriftly prohibited. In 1767, two hundred 
Dutch, and eighty French doggers, of about a hundred 'tons each, were employ- 
ed, thofe of each nation under the orders and proteétion of a frigate. They 
keep from four to fix leagues from fhore, and fifh. with hooks baited commonly 
with large muffels, in forty or fifty fathoms. water. Others go to the diftance 
of fifteen leagues, and fifh in the depth of a hundred fathoms. The great cap- 
* Voyage au Mer du Nord, 69. + Horrebow, 101. t Kerguelin, 316 
. Troll, 435 49. § Kerguelin, 20, 175+ @ See p. xiv. 
3 ture 
Lil 
Bays FROZEN. 
Froatine [c&e 
