I 



74 



ICE. 



E M A R K S 



N 



THE 



The ice floats 



which in the fummer of the South 



hemifphere was obferved to be many degrees above the freez 

 point ; it muft therefore continually melt and decay ; 



and 



the difference of the fpecific gravity of common air to frefh water is 



ly 



^L '!k^ m^^ ftmy ^P^ ^ •- 



S 



both of the -fame- 



temperature J it is evident that frefli water mufl melt the ic 



air, as the particles of water in contact with 



more; 



than common air, ; 

 are fo much heavier 



the 



and, for the fame reafo 



fea 



to 



freih water as 1.030 to i.ooo, fea- water muft a^t ftill more upo 

 the ice than freih- water -* . We had frequent opportunities of fee 



o- the effed: of the fea 



o 



upon 



the ice,- in dilTGlving and 



crumbling large maffes to pieces, with a crafli 

 cxplofion of guns ; and fometimes- 



ferior 



we we 



at fo fmall a difta 



from them, that we were 



being crufhed by 



fcarce out of the reach of the d 



6 



of 



k fplitting in pie 



wh 



fetting, each of them having gotten new centers of gravity. The 



melted from the 



and mixed wi 



mufl like 



wife cool the temperature of the fea- water in the latitudes between, 



50 and ec^ South,, where thefe particulars were chiefly obferved by, 



It 



* However large mtilTes ofice require a long, time and'a warm climate entirely to-dlffohT. 



Sometimes in 40° North latitude, ice-ifiands have been met with in the Atlantic : 



them. 



and I'have been told by an officer, who fpent feveral years at and about Newfoundland, that 

 a very bulky Ice-ifland was driven into the Sire.'gifs ofBdhiJle, where it was grounded, and 

 continued a whole fummer, and was not entirely diffoived before the fummer of the next year. 



