1865.] Kett on the North Pole. 833 



and channels arc bridged across by plains of level ice which, even 

 when crushed, piles up to form other icebergs, or, when rent asunder, 

 leaves comparatively narrow fissures ; these in their turn are spanned 

 by a fresh coating of newly-formed ice. Throughout all the exploring 

 ground that we know best, that namely to the north of the American 

 continent and of Greenland, this is the constantly recurring cycle of 

 events every winter. But farther east, to the north of Spitzbergen, 

 the sea is more open, there is no trace of glacier action, no masses of 

 ice are poured into the already freezing sea to form the nucleus of 

 fresh congelation ; the ocean currents are mighty, and wind wantons 

 with waves, defying the ice particles, if formed, to adhere to one 

 another. 



The farther we proceed from the Western continent the more these 

 conditions are increased : the Gulf Stream, in its mighty sweep across 

 the Atlantic, ends not its course when it arrives opposite to the shores 

 of our own island, nor even when it breaks against the rugged coast 

 of Iceland. It separates certainly ; the more westerly branch, verging 

 towards the coast of Greenland, is soon merged in the south-flowing 

 arctic currents — it turns on itself and is lost ; but the more easterly 

 continues its course and steers between the coasts of Iceland and of 

 Norway on to Spitzbergen and beyond, until the impetus of this body of 

 water is exhausted, but whether against the ice-wall in midst of the 

 northern sea, or against the shores of the land on the other side of the 

 pole, remains to be proved. 



According to some of the greatest geologists of our time, there has 

 been no geological period during which we can trace the effect of ter- 

 restrial icebergs descending from the arctic seas to the West of 

 Spitzbergen. All along the coast of Europe, in England, Scandinavia, 

 Germany, and Russia, erratic blocks of boulder-stones mark the pro- 

 gress of these early carriers ; but to the east of the Ural, the results of 

 their progress disappear, so that though we can scarcely believe that 

 icebergs have not travelled southwards to the coast of Siberia, still 

 they have brought nothing with them to mark whence they originated 

 or where they settled ; and if they brought no traces of the land about 

 the glaciers from which they sprung, we may suppose that they were 

 rather sea-born than of earthly parentage. 



The effect of wind upon open water is very considerable, the force 

 of rapidly moving air dashing against the uneven surface of the ice, 

 even if not accompanied by a rise in the temperature, is very great, 

 extending, as has been testified by numerous arctic explorers, even to 

 the breaking up of extensive floes of ice from twenty to thirty feet 

 thick. But besides the mere force of the wind in shattering these 

 fields of ice, these storm-blasts are frequently accompanied by a rise of 

 the thermometer, the wind coming from a warmer region. In the 

 coldest parts of the earth the winds must almost invariably come from 

 warmer climates ; thus a predisposition to disintegration is produced, 

 which, in combination with the violence of the wind, again works, and 

 when once the ice is broken up, the sea itself is disturbed, waves of 

 considerable height are raised, the water of various depths is inter- 

 mingled, each depth having its own increasing temperature, until that 



