GREENLAND OR POLAR ICE. 



2S1 



oif rubbish had been squeezed upon the top, and 

 that the motion had not abated. The fields con- 

 tinued to overlay each other with a majestic mo- 

 tion, producing a noise resembling that of com- 

 plicated machinery, or distant thunder. The 

 pressure was so immense, that numerous fissures 

 were occasioned, and the ice repeatedly rent be- 

 neath my feet. In one of the fissures, I found the 

 snow on the level to be three and a-half feet deep, 

 and the ice upwards of twelve. In one place, 

 hummocks had been thrown up to the height of 

 twenty feet from the surface of the field, and at 

 least twenty-five feet from the level of the water ; 

 they extended fifty or sixty yards in length, and 

 fifteen in breadth, forming a mass of about two 

 thousand tons in weight. The majestic unvaried 

 movement of the ice,— the singular noise with 

 which it was accompanied, — the tremendous pow- 

 er exerted, — and the wonderful effects produced, 

 were calculated to excite sensations of novelty 

 and grandeur, in the mind of even the most care- 

 less spectator ! 



Sometimes these motions of the ice may be ac- 

 counted for. Fields are disturbed by currents,— 

 the wind, — or the pressure of other ice against 

 them. Though the set of the current be gene- 

 rally towards the south-west, yet it seems occa* 

 sionally to vary : the wind forces all ice to lee- 

 v/ard, with a velocity nearly in the inverse pjjo- 



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