ICEBERaS. 
61 
of pure and intense ultramarine ; and to leeward the 
quiet water lit the eye down to a long, spindle-shaped 
root of milky whiteness, which seemed to dye the 
sea as it descended, until the blue and white were 
mixed in a pale turkois. Above, and high enough to 
give an expression akin to sublimity, were bristling 
crags. 
This was the first berg that I had visited. I was 
struck with its peculiar opacity, the result of its gran- 
ulated structure. I had incidentally met with the 
remark of Professor Forbes, that "the floating icebergs 
of the Polar Seas are for the most part of the nature 
of neve ;" and, while I was at a distance, had looked 
upon the substance of the mass before me as identical 
with the ''firn," or consolidated snow of the Alpine gla- 
ciers. I now found cause, for the first time, to change 
this opinion. The ice of this berg, although opaque 
and vesicular, w^as true glacier ice, having the fracture, 
lustre, and other external characters of a nearly homo- 
geneous growth. The same authority, in speaking of 
these bergs, declares that " the occurrence of true ice 
is comparatively rare, and is justly dreaded by ships." 
From this impression, which was undoubtedly derived 
from the appearance of a berg at a distance, I am also 
compelled to dissent. The iceberg is true ice, and is 
always dreaded by ships. Indeed, though modified by 
climate, and especially by the alternation of day and 
night, the Polar glacier must be regarded as strictly 
atmospheric in its increments, and not essentially dif- 
fering from the glacier of the Alps. 
The general color of a berg I have before compared 
to frosted silver. But when its fractures are very ex- 
tensive, the exposed faces have a very brilliant lustre. 
Nothing can be more exquisite than a fresh, cleanly- 
