182 FORMATION OF ICEBERGS 



the shore, having on one side indentations and projections correspond- 

 ing to the irregularities in the face of the precipice from which they 

 had become detached. 



The whole of the north shore of Hudson's Strait, which lies between 

 lat. 61'^ and 64*^ north, and Ion. 65° to 75° west, being lofty and pre- 

 cipitous, is well adapted for the formation of bergs ; they are conse- 

 quently very numerous, in some cases of very large extent, and more 

 than one hundred feet high. In addition to these huge bergs, strong 

 gales of wind and currents, acting separately or in concert, frequently 

 force floes of ice one over the other, to the height of fifty or sixty 

 feet. The whole freezes together and forms a kind of spurious iceberg, 

 which is easily distinguished from the true one by its jagged and irre- 

 gular form. 



In Hudson's Bay there are few or no icebergs deserving the name, 

 because there are no high rocks possessing the peculiarities requisite 

 for their formation. For the same reason there are none to be seen 

 along the northern shore of America, from Point Barrow in Ion. 156° 

 eastward, to Backs River, in Ion. 96°. Neither are there any icebergs 

 in Regents Inlet or Victoria Strait. 



According to Dr. Kane's account, as given at page 149, vol. ii. of 

 the narrative of his last voyage, the icebergs in Smith's Sound are 

 formed in a very different manner from that which I have described, 

 nor is there any reason why both descriptions, although differing, 

 should not be essentially correct. Dr. Kane, when speaking of Hum- 

 boldt' s| Glacier, says : " The enormous masses of the great Glacier are 

 propelled, step by step and year by year, until reaching water capable 

 of supporting them they are floated off to be lost in the temperature 

 of other regions." 



The great changes and difference in the forms and color of icebergs 

 arise from the turning over of these floating islands. The ice wastes 

 faster under water than it does with air, and the iceberg becoming top 

 heavy changes its position until its equilibrium is restored. 



"When at Repulse Bay in the spring of 184<7, I was somewhat sur- 

 prised to observe that as the sea ice wasted away by the combined 

 effects of thaw and evaporation, boulders of from three to four feet in 

 diameter appeared on the surface of the ice, at such a distance from 

 the land as entirely to preclude the idea that they had rolled thither 

 from the low flat shore in the neighbourhood. These boulders were 



