WATER AND THE 



OCEAN. 



69 



Sect, IV. ICEand its FORMATION. 



/ 



TyjOTHING appeared more ftrange to the feveral navigators in 



i>J 



high latitudes, than the firfl fight of the immenfe maffes of 



ice which are found floating in the ocean ; and I mull confefs, that 

 though I had read a great many accounts on their nature, figure,., 

 formation and magnitude, I was however very much flruck by their 

 firfi: appearance. The real grandeur of the fight by far furpafi^ed any^ 



ng 



I could expedl; for we faw fometim 



1 



flands of 



of 



one or two mi 



d at the fame time a hundred feet 



or upwards above water. We will fuppofe, that ice of paral- 



lei dimenlions fwimming in iea- water, only lliews one part out 

 of ten above water -f-j v/hich is a moderate fuppofition, becaufe 

 according to Mairan f ice fwimming in frefh water had one 

 fourteenth part of the whole above its furface^ nay. Dr. Irving 



r 



§ plunged a piece of the moil folid ice in melted fnow water and 



fourteen fiftee 



parts funk under 



1 



eve 



1 



A piece therefore 



of only 



one mi 



length, a quarter of 



mi 



breadth 



d 



100 feet above Avater contains 696960,000 cubic feet of folid ice ; . 



' r 



but as the 100 feet, are only the contents of the ice above water, 



A, 



the fame mufi: be taken nine times more for the contents under 



water^;:. 



■f- Bcyk Phtlof. Tranf. No di. 



> 



+ Mairan fur la glace "^^ 264. 



§ Avoyare to^o:anh thcl^QrthTclcvjCapt. Ph'pps. Appendix ^ p. 141." 



ICE 



% 



V 





\ 



^. 



