( 317 ) 
S 
ICE ISLANDS. 
** bestowed by seamen on the huge solid masses 
ties ^'J'ich float on the seas near or within the Polar cir- 
•ftla 
t '^Oa, these fluctuating islands are met with on 
J' * of Spitzbergen, to the great danger of tlie 
j tti the Greenland fishery. In the midst 
NfvS^'-'^otendo'us 
h "ozen I 
V masses, navigators have been arrested 
to death. In this manner the brave Sir Hugh 
.‘^t perished with all his crew in 1553 ; and in the 
^!**t Lord Mulgrave, after every eftbrt which the 
^"'atir'>‘?plished 
seaman could make, to reach the ter- 
bis voyage, was caught in the ice, and nearly 
w f ®time unhappy fate. The scene he describes, 
‘^0 horrors attendant on the eventful expectation 
l'P' be„ most beautiful and picturesque. Two large 
•“ ■ ■ '•atnied ' - . - - 
ill a vast bason, surrounded on all sides by 
^h .'’ttrious forms; the weather clear; the sun 
0’ *t)d'^ *^'t-cumambient ice, which was low, smooth. 
[)o,,jj 'hovered with snow, except where pools of water, 
of the surface, shot forth new icy crystals ; and 
q ^^’•‘face of the comparatively small space of sea 
^t'9y|„ ’®y 'vere hemmed. Sucli is the picture drawn by 
tViv'tl perils by which he was surrounded. 
th'f’./*’® limits of these becam 
!^iit gf ® ^-le sliips were iramoveably . 
by^'i' '''^os soon lost : the pressure of tlie pieces 
s.VJ’" 
of j’y'*^ioss attempts to force their way through the 
the limits of these became at length so con- 
fixed. The smooth 
ce was soon lost : the pr 
be violence of the swell, caused them to pack ; 
msB upon fragment, until they were in many 
niain°^^ 
^v^*^b:ou,.?‘^i‘;f'dous and involuntary, in conjunction 
ice, actuated by the currents. The i 
' ^Utert.'!; fourteen fathoms, great apprehensions 
The 
movements of the 
with 
water 
-'S the grounding of the ice, or of the 
jf'li'' liavg ..’'"■‘t been equally tiital: the force of the ice 
tV'Hq.j'i'' '^^i'cd them to atoms, or have lifted them out 
have overset them 
“Us 
or, again, have left 
- yjn — 
dashed to pieces by the failure of their 
*iii> tm tlie summits of the pieces of ice at a 
*'"k op i^'^'Sbt, exposed to the fury of the winds, or w 
