266 GREENLAND OR POLAR ICE. 



'I 



wreck being coacervated upon one or both of 

 them. To hummocks, the ice is indebted for 

 its vai'ietj of fanciful shapes, and its pic- 

 turesque appearance. They occur in great num- 

 bers in heavy packs, on the edges and oc- 

 casionally in the middle of fields and floes. They 

 often attain the height of thirty feet or upwards. 



A calf, is a portion of ice which has been de- 

 pressed by the same means as a hummock is ele- 

 vated. It is kept down by some larger mass ; 

 from beneath which, it shews itself on one side. 

 I have seen a calf so deep and broad, that the ship 

 sailed over it without touching, when it might be 

 observed on both sides of the vessel at the same 

 time ; this, however, is attended with consider- 

 able danger, and necessity alone warrants the ex- 

 periment, as calves have not unfrequently (by a 

 ship's touching them, or disturbing the sea near 

 them) been called from their sub-marine situa- 

 tion to the surface, and with such an accelerated 

 velocity, as to stave the planks and timbers of the 

 ship, and in some instances, to reduce the vessel 

 to a vvreck. 



Any part of the upper superficies of a piece of 

 ice, which comes to be immersed beneath the 

 surface of the water, obtains the name of a tongue. 



■ A bigbt signifies a bay or sinuosity, on the 

 border of any large mass or body of ice. It is 

 supposed to be called bigbt from the low word bite, 

 to take in, or entrap : because, in this situation^ 



