MAGNIFICENT FLOE. 
409 
or the North Baffin's Straits, This ice, though pure 
and beautiful, could never have been created in any 
sing-le winter. It has made me understand for the 
first time the startling- stories of Wrangell. This floe 
is now more than two hundred and fifty yards long by 
four hundred wide ; a size too large for infraposition 
of tables, while its purity precludes the idea of ground 
ice. Its depth, ascertained from its mean line of flo- 
tation, exceeds forty feet. Its surface is level, and the 
appearance, looking down into its pure depths, beau- 
tiful beyond description. It forms part of a great field, 
miles in circumference, as similar coaptating fragments 
are seen in every direction ; the great swell of the 5th 
having no doubt destroyed its integrity. From what 
great winter basin comes this colossal ice ?" 
APPKOACHING DISCO. 
