320 
PHENOMENA OF THE OCEAN 
field, beside those on the outside ; many of ^ 
large, and looking like a ridge of mountains, t V 
above the other until they were lost in tlie y 
most elevated and most rugged of these ice-is a j 
- - three ',|j/ 
surmounted by peaks, and were from two to 
feet in height, with perpendicular clitFs or sides ^ 
to behold. The largest of them terminated in * 1 , 
unlike the cupola of St. Paul’s. ^ ^ jA 
The outer, or northern edge, of this imnion 
ice, was compo.sed of loose or broken ice clo’^ 
together, so that it was not possible to find W, 
Such mountains of ice. Captain Cook was 
never seen in tlic Greenland seas, so that not any *" .(■ o* 
could be drawn ; and it was the opinion of 
persons on board, that this ice extended quite t 
to which they were then widiin less tlian nineteen^^|j ^ 
or, perhaps, joined to some land to which it had 
from the earliest time. Our navigator was of ‘’P ■ ■'' ■ 
it is to tlie soutli of this parallel that all tire ice ’ 
whicli is found scattered up and down to the 
and afterward broken off by gales of wind, or 
and brought forward by tire currents which are ^ 
to set in that direction in high latitudes. " She |t 
he observes, “ be land to the soutli behind tbjS 
“ aftSrd no better retreat for birds, or any cO' jff 
“ than the ice itself, with which it must be wl^ / 
“ I, who was ambitious, not only to go .f jg 
“ one had been before, but as far as it was po.'iSi 
“ to go, was not sorry at meeting with this 'd 
“ as it in some measure relieved us, or at Ic^ 
“ the dangers and hardships inseparable from tb® 
“ of die southern polar regions.” 
The approximation of several fields of icc g, ^ 
magnitudes produces a very singular 
smaller of these masses are forced out of the / 
thrown on the larger ones, until at length ad 
formed of a tremendous height. These ddddd^^gUijV 
dies of ice float in the sea like so many rugged 
and are continually increased in height by 
the spray of die sea, and the melting of the .,1 
falls on them. While their growth tltus 
the smaller fields, of a less elevation, are tlic 
