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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
or even years, and are only removed by “ calving,” or pieces 
breaking off from them. 
Dr. H. Bink, of Copenhagen, whose long residence in the 
country entitles his opinion to the greatest respect, has calcu- 
lated the yearly precipitation, including both snow and rain, at 
ten inches, and the discharge of ice, in the form of glaciers, 
at two inches. A small portion is given off by evaporation, 
but the greatest discharge is probably in the streams of water 
which pour out beneath the glaciers, both in summer and 
winter. We do not appear to be in possession of sufficient 
data to justify an opinion as to how far the united yearly dis- 
charge of ice, water, and vapour at present equals the annual 
precipitation. It is obvious that the question of the increase 
or decrease of the existing ice-sheet hinges on this point. 
The sub-glacial streams, thickly loaded with mud from the 
grinding of the glaciers on the rocks over which they travel, 
discolour the sea for miles, and finally deposit on the bottom a 
thick coating of the finest material, in which Arctic marine 
animals burrow in great numbers. Some of the inlets, for- 
merly quite open for boats, are now so choked up with bergs 
— mainly, it is thought, in consequence of the deposits of sub- 
glacial mud — that going up them is never thought of at 
present. 
Occasionally, without a breath of wind stirring, ice-bergs are 
seen “ shooting out ” of an inlet, propelled, in all probability, 
by the waves produced by a fresh berg being detached from 
the glacier up the fjord. 
The bergs when aground have always a slight movement, 
which stirs up the food on which the seals largely subsist ; 
hence the neighbourhood of such bergs is a favourite haunt of 
these animals, and thus too often tempts the native fisherman, 
who not unfrequently loses his life by falling ice. “ When we 
would row between two bergs;,” says Dr. Brown, a to avoid a 
few hundred yards’ circuit, the rowers would pull with muffled 
oars and bated breath. Orders would be given in whispers, 
and even were Sabine’s gull or the great auk to swim past, I 
scarcely think that even the chance of gaining such a prize 
would tempt us to run the risk of firing, and thereby endanger- 
ing our lives by the reverberations bringing down pieces of 
crumbling ice hanging overhead. A few strokes and we are 
out of danger ; and then the pent-up feelings of our stolid 
fur-clad oarsmen find vent in lusty huzzahs ! Yet, when viewed 
out of danger, this noble assemblage of ice palaces, hundreds 
in number being seen at such times from the end of Jakobs- 
havn Kirke, was a magnificent sight ; and the voyager might 
well indulge in some poetic frenzy at the view. The noon- 
day heat had melted their sides ; and the rays of the red even- 
