<>^t. 



I C K . 



REMARKS 



O N 



T H E 



feds 'j but whofoever has fpent feveral winters in countries, which 

 are fubjed; to intenfe frofts, will find nothing extraordinary or diffi- 

 cult in this argument : for it is a well-known fad in cold countries. 



the ice, which covers their lakes and 



often opaque 



efpecially v/iien the frofl fets in, accompanied by a fall offnow; 

 for, in thofe inilances, the ice looks, before it hardens, like a 

 deugh or pafle, and when congealed it is opaque and white ; how- 

 ever in fpring, a rain and the thaw, followed by frofly nights, 

 change the opacity and colour of the ice, and make it quite tranf- 

 parent and colourlefs like a cryllal ; but, in cafe the thaw conti- 

 nues, and it ceafes entirely to freeze, the fame tranfparent ice be- 

 comes foft and porous, and turns again entirely opaque *. This, I 

 believe, may be applicable to the ice fcQU. by us in the ocean. The 

 field-ice was commonly opaque ; fome of the large maiTes, probably 

 drenched by rain, and frozen again, were traniparent and pellucid; 

 . but the fmall fragments of loofe ice, formed by the decay of the 



£3 



mafies, and foaked by long continued 



we found to be 



porous, foft, and opaque. 



It is likewife urged as an argument againft the formation of ice 

 in the ocean, that it always requires land, in order to have a point 

 lUpon which it may be fixed -f . Firfl, I obferve, that in Mr. 



Nairne's 



* Marterf s Recueil des Voyages au Nord. torn. 2, p, 62, 

 j- Buffon, Hid. Nat. vol. i. p. 34. 



