^286 ^GREENLAND OR POLAR ICE. 



the wind and prevailing currents, are found an- 

 nually to disembogue themselves of their ice. On 

 the eastern coast, if we may rely on the charts, 

 and credit the affirmations of the Dutch, many 

 more suitable spots are offered, wherein ice may 

 be increased for ages ; the most prevailing winds, 

 and the common set of the current on these shores, 

 having no tendency to dislodge it, until its enor- 

 mous growth has carried it beyond the limits of 

 security and undisturbed rest. And from this 

 Eastern coast, it is, (which is favourable to the 

 supposition,) that most of the icebergs which 

 have been seen, seem to have drifted, — they being 

 mostly met with in the vicinity of Cherry Island, 

 or between it and the southern Cape of Spitz- 

 bergen, where the course of the current is sup- 

 posed to be from the north-east towards the south- 

 west. The ice of bergs invariably producing 

 pure fresh-water, when dissolved, is no argument 

 against the majority having their origin amidst 

 sea-v»7ater ; for fields, which, from their flat sur- 

 face, and large extent, must have their rise on the 

 bosom of the ocean, commonly afford a solution 

 equally fresh. 



Icebergs generated at a distance from any known 

 land^ 



Mliller relates a circumstance, which intimates, 

 That some icebergs have their origin in the wide 

 expanse of the ocean. He informs us, that in the 

 year 1714, one Markoff, a Cossack, with some 



