GREENLAND OR FOtAR/ICE* 



ly the product of sea-water, and partly that of 

 snow and rain water. And it is highly pro^ 

 bable, 



That a continent of ice mountains may exist 

 ill regions near the Pole, yet unexplored, the 

 nucleus of which may be as ancient as the earth 

 itself, and its increase derived from the sea and 

 atmosphere combined. 



III. Fields, — That sortie fields arise from the 

 cementation, by the agency of frost, of the pieces 

 of a closely aggregated pack, which may have 

 consisted of light or heavy ice ; and, conse- 

 quently, which may have been wholly derived 

 from the ocean, or from the sea and atmosphere 

 combined. 



That the most considerable masses are gene- 

 rated in openings of the far northern ice, produced 

 by the constant recession towards the south of that 

 body lying near the coasts of Spitzbergen, ; and, 

 that such fields are at first derived from the ocean, 

 but are indebted for a considerable portion of super- 

 structure, to the annual addition of the whole, or 

 part of their burthen of snow. And, 



IV. As to the ice in general, — That however 

 dependant the ice may have been on the land^ 

 from the time of its first appearance, to its gain- 

 iiie an ascendancy over the waves of the ocean j,^ 

 sufficient to resist their utmost ravages, and to ar« 



