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Ch. 



XIX.] 



ON ICE-FLOES. 



.361 



found on field-ice^ above tAvo liundred miles from the shore/ '^" 



Wolves 



the shore^ for the purpose of preying upon young seals, which 

 they surprise when asleep. When these ice-floes get detached, 

 the wolves are often carried out to sea j and though some may 

 be drifted to islands or continents, the greater part of them 

 perish, and have been often heard in this situation howling 



During 



, as they die by famine .f 



the short summer which visits Melville Island, 

 various plants push forth their leaves and flowers the moment 

 the snow is off the ground, and form a carpet spangled with 



most 



lively colours. These secluded spots are reached 

 annually by herds of musk-oxen and rein-deer, which, migra- 



& 



North 



hundreds of miles to graze undisturbed on these luxuriant 



pastures. J 



manner 



by the chain of the Aleutian Islands, from Behring's Straits 

 to Kamtschatka, subsisting on the moss found in these islands 

 during their passage. § But the musk-ox, notwithstanding 

 its migratory habits, and its long journeys over the ice, does 



not exist either in Asia or Greenland. 



floating islands of drift 



Within 



mode of 



transportation, there are floating islets of matted trees, which 

 are often borne along through considerable spaces. These are 

 sometimes seen sailino' at the distii.nnp of fiftv or on a Tmn/lvArl 



om 



to 



fc) 



erect upon them. The Amazons, the Orinoco, and the Congo 

 also produce these verdant rafts, which are formed in the 



manner 



the Atchafalaya, an arm of the Mississippi, where a natural 



timber 



more 



luxuriant vegetation, and rising and sinking with the water 

 which flowed beneath it. 



* Account of the Arctic Kegions, 

 vol. i. p. 518. 



■ t Turton in^a note to Goldsmith's vof. i^pn^ 



of Discovery, p. 189. 



Godman's American Nat. Hist., 



Nat. Hist., vol. iii. p. 43. 



} Supplement to Parry's First Voyage port, vol. v. p. IGl. 



Dr. Richardson, Brit. Assoc. Re- 



