THE ARCTIC SEAS. 



55 



hills, are as distinctly marked as similar objects in many other countries, not 

 having snow about them, would be at a fourth or a fifth part of the distance. 



Nothing can be more wonderful than the phenomena of the atmosphere de- 

 pendent on reflection and refraction, which are frequently observed in the Arc- 

 tic seas, particularly at the commencement or approach of easterly winds. They 

 are probably occasioned by the commixture, near the surface of the land or sea, 

 of two streams of air of different temperatures, so as to occasion an irregular 

 deposition of imperfectly condensed vapor, which when passing the verge of the 

 horizon apparently raises the objects there situated to a considerable distance 

 above it, or extends their height beyond their natural dimensions. Ice, land, 

 ships, boats, and other objects, when thus enlarged and elevated, are said to 

 loom. The lower part of looming objects are sometimes connected with the 

 horizon by an apparent fibrous or columnar extension of their parts ; at other 

 times they appear to be quite lifted into the air, a void space being seen between 

 them and the horizon. 



A most remarkable delusion of this kind was observed by Scoresby while 

 sailing through the open ice, far from land. Suddenly an immense amphitheatre 

 inclosed by high walls of basaltic ice, so like natural rock as to deceive one of 

 his most experienced officers, rose around the ship. Sometimes the refraction 

 produced on all sides a similar effect, but still more frequently remarkable con- 

 trasts. Single ice-blocks expanded into architectural figures of an extraordina- 

 ry height, and sometimes the distant, deeply indented ice-border looked like a 

 number of towers or minarets, or like a dense forest of naked trees. Scarcely 

 had an object acquired a distinct form, when it began to dissolve into another. 



It is well known that similar causes produce similar effects in the warmer 

 regions of the earth. In the midst of the tropical ocean, the mariner sees ver- 

 dant islands rise from the waters, and in the treeless desert fantastic palm- 

 groves wave their fronds, as if in mockery of the thirsty caravan. 



When we consider the intense cold which reigns during the greatest part of 

 the year in the Arctic regions, we might naturally expect to find the whole of 

 the Polar Sea covered, during the winter at least, with one solid unbroken sheet 

 of ice. But experience teaches us that this is by no means the case ; for the 

 currents, the tides, the winds, and the swell of a turbulent ocean are mighty 

 causes of disruption, or strong impediments to congelation. Both Lieutenant 

 de Haven and Sir Francis M'Clintock* were helplessly carried along, in the 

 depth of winter, by the pack-ice in Lancaster Sound and Baffin's Bay. A 

 berg impelled by a strong under-current rips open an ice-field as if it were a 

 thin sheet of glass ; and in channels, or on coasts where the tides rise to a con- 

 siderable height, their flux and reflux is continually opening crevices and lanes 

 in the ice which covers the waters. That even in the highest latitudes the sea 

 does not close except when at rest, was fully experienced by Dr. Hayes during 

 his wintering at Port Foulke ; for at all times, even when the temperature of 

 the air was below the freezing-point of mercury, he could hear from the deck 

 of his schooner the roar of the beating waves. From all these causes there 

 has at no point within the Arctic Circle been found a firm ice-belt extending, 

 * See Chapter XXXII. 



