£72 GREENLAND OR POLAR. ICE. 



Whether this may be the case or not, the follow- 

 ing facts may possibly determine. 



I have noticed the process of freezing from the 

 first appearance of crystals, until the ice had ob- 

 tained a thickness of more than a foot, and did 

 not find that the land afforded any assistance or 

 even shelter, which could not have been dispensed 

 with during the operation. It is true, that the 

 land was the cause of the vacancy or space free 

 from ice, where this new ice was generated ; the 

 ice of older formation had been driven off by 

 easterly winds, assisted perhaps by a current; 

 yet this new ice lay at the distance of twenty 

 leagues from Spitzbergen. But I have also seen 

 ic€ grow to a consistence capable of stopping the 

 progress of a ship with a brisk w^ind, even when 

 exposed to the waves of the North Sea and 

 Western Ocean, on the south aspect of the main 

 body of the Greenland ice, in about the seventy- 

 second degree of north latitude. In this situa- 

 tion, the process of freezing is accomplished un- 

 der peculiar disadvantages. I shall attempt tq 

 describe its progress from the commencement. 



Freezing of the Ocean in a rough Sea, 



The first appearance of ice whilst in the state 

 of detached crystals, is called by the sailors sludge^ 

 and resembles snow when cast into water that is 

 too cold to dissolve it. This smooths the ruffled 

 sea, and produces an effect like oil in stilling the 



