LXXXVI 
Snow. 
SEASONS. 
Bears. 
Foxes. 
Fow ts. 
& Pl Te Ze Ea ReGoben, 
lar rcebergs are frequent in all the Aréic regions ; and to their lapfes is owing the 
folid mountanous ice which infefts thofe feas. 
Froft {ports alfo with thefe icebergs, and gives them majeftic as well as other moft 
fingular forms. Mafles have been feen, affuming the fhape of a Gothic church, 
with arched windows and doors, and all the rich tracery of that ftyle, compofed of 
what an Arabian tale would fcarcely dare to relate, of cryftal of the richeft fap- 
phirine blue: tables with one or more feet ; and often immenfe flat-roofed temples, 
like thofe of Luxxor on the Nile, fupported by round tranfparent columns of ca- 
rulean hue, float by the aftonifhed fpeétator *. 
Thefe icebergs are the creation of ages, and receive annually additional height 
by the falling of fnows and of rain, which often inftantly freezes, and more than 
repairs the lofs by the influence of the meiting fun +. 
The fnow of thefe high latitudes is as fingular as the ice. It is firft fmall 
and hard as the fineft fand { ; changes its form to that of an hexagonal fhield, 
into the fhape of needles, croffes, cinquefoils, and ftars, plain and with ferrated 
rays. Their forms depend on the difpofition of the atmofphere; and in calm wea~ 
ther it coalefces, and falls in clufters §, 
Thunder and lightning are unknown here. The air in fummer is generally 
clear ; but the fky loaden with hard white clouds, The one night of this dread- 
ful country begins about Oé?ober 20th, O. S.; the fun then fets, and never appears 
till about the 3d of February ||: a glimmering indeed continues fome weeks after 
its fetting : then fucceed clouds and thick darknefs, broken by the light of the 
moon, which is luminous as that in England, and fhines without intermiffion during 
the long night q. Such alfo is the cafe in Nova Zemlja**. The cold, according 
to the Englifh proverb, ftrengthens with the new year ; and the fun is ufhered in 
with unufual feverity of froft. The fplendor of that Juminary on the fnowy 
fummits of the mountains was the moft glorious of fights to the fingle party who 
furvived to relate the account. The Bears ftalk forth at the fame time from their 
dens, attended by their young cubs. By the beginning of March, the chearful 
light grows ftrong: the 4rétic Foxes leave their holes, and the fea-fowls refort 
in great multitudes to their breeding-places ++. 
* Marten, 44. + The fame. t~ The fame. § The fame, 51. || Relation of 
Eight Englifbmen, &c, Churchill's Coll. iv. 813.—Relation of Seven Dutchmen, &c. Churchill, iis 4306 
Narrative of Four Ruffian failors, 94. *# De Ver, trois Voy, au Nord. 22, be tt Relation 
of Eight Englifhmen, &c. 817, 818, 819. 
5 The 
