WATER AND mt OCEAN 



77' 



amount chiefly to this; " that the ice floating in the ocean is all 

 ^ frefh, that fait water does not freeze at all, or if it does, it con- 

 ** tains 'briny particles; they infer from thence, that the ice in the 



*' ocean cannot be formed in the fea, far from any land 



ther 



e 



" mufl therefore exiflAuftral lands; becaufe in order to form an 



<( 



idea 



of the origin of the great ice mafles agreeably to what 



<i 



obferved 



the N 



hemifphere, they find that 



firft 



'* fpomf dappui J ' ^o'mt for fixing the high ice illands is the land, 

 ** and fecondly that the great quantity of flat ice is brought down 



th 



e rivers. 



' I have impartially and carefully confidered and ex- 

 amined thefe arguments, and compared every circumftance with i 

 what we faw in the high Southern latitudes, and with other known *; 

 fad:s, and will here infert the refult of all my enquiries on this; 

 iiibjea. 



A, 



Firfi:, they obfer'vc the ice floating in the ocean to yield by melting, 

 frejli water: which I* believe to be true; however hitherto it has . 



*- 



( 



by no means been generally allowed to be frefh, for Grant z 



fays 



exprefsly, that, " the flat pieces (forming what they call . the /f^- ~ 

 ** Fields )\t^ fait, becaufe they were congealed from fea water." ' 

 The ice taken up by us for watering the fhip was of all kinds, and ! 

 nevertiielefs we found it conflantly frefli,- which proves, either that 



the 



ICE. 



f Crantz's Hlft. of GretKland, p. 31. . 



