THE MAELSTROM. 439 
island Ver, and betwixt these two runs that large and dreadful 
ways dart from an azure sky, and in the more temperate cli- 
mates diminish the calorific action of the sun often by one- 
fifth part, can scarcely exist. On this account, perhaps the 
estimate of the annual destruction of polar ice may be swelled 
to a thickness of four feet. 
THE MAELSTROM ^'^ ^^ ' 
The Maelstrom, a very dangerous whirlpool on the coast 
of Norway, in the 68th degree of latitude, in the province of 
Nordland, and the district of Lofoden, and near the island of 
Moskoe, from whence it also takes the name of Moskoe-strom., 
Its violence and roarings exceed that of a cataract, being 
heard to a great distance, and without any intermission ex- 
cept a quarter every sixth hour, that is, at the turn of high 
and low water, when its impetuosity seems at a stand, which 
short interval is the only time the fisherman can venture in ; 
but this motion soon returns, and however calm the sea may 
be, gradually increases with such a draught and vortex as ab- 
sorb whatever comes within their sphere of action, and keep 
under water for some hours, when the fragments, shivered 
by the rocks, appear again. This circumstance, among others, 
makes strongly against Kircher and others, who imagine 
that there is here an abyss penetrating the globe, and issuing 
in some very remote parts, which Kircher is so particular as 
to assign, for he names the gulf of Bothinia. But after the 
most exact researches which the circumstances will admit, 
this is but a conjecture without foundation : for this and three 
other vortices among the Ferroe islands, but smaller, have no 
other cause than the collision of waves, rising and falling at 
the flux and reflux, against a ridge of rocks and shelves 
which confine the water so that it precipitates itself like a 
cataract ; and thus the higher the flood rises the deeper must 
the fall be ; and the natural result of this is a whirlpool or 
vortex, the prodigious suction whereof is sufficiently known 
by lesser experiments. But what has been thus absorbed re- 
mains no longer at the bottom than the ebb lasts ; for the suc- 
tion then ceases, and the flood removes all attractions, and 
permits whatever had been sunk to make its appearance 
again. Of the situation of this amazing Moskoe-strom we 
have the following account from M. Jonas Ramus : " The 
mountain of Helseggen, in Lofoden, lies a league from the 
