^18 Mr Scoresby m the Seven Icebergs of Spitzbergen. 
commonly rises with a gentle slope, until they are either termi- 
nated by the brow of the mountain in the back ground, or in- 
terrupted by a precipitous summit. Besides these icebergs, 
there are some, equally large, near the north-west angle of 
Spitzbergen, in. King’s Bay and in Cross Bay, and some of 
much greater magnitude near Point-look-out, besides many 
others of various sizes, in the large sounds on the western side, 
and along the northern and eastern shores of this remarkable 
country. 
The Seven Icebergs are each, on an average, about a mile in 
length, and perhaps near 200 feet in height at the sea edge ; 
but some of those to the southward are much greater. A litttle 
to the northward of Horn Sound, is the largest iceberg I have 
seen. It occupies eleven miles in length, of the sea-coast. The 
highest part of the precipitous front adjoining the sea is, by 
measurement, 402 feet, and it extends backward toward the 
summit of the mountain, to about four times that elevation. Its 
surface forms a beautiful inclined plane of smooth snow ; the 
edge is uneven and perpendicular. At the distance . of fifteen 
miles, the front-edge subtended an angle of ten minutes of a de- 
gree. Near the South Cape lies another iceberg, nearly as ex- 
tensive as this. It occupies the space between two lateral 
ridges of hills, and reaches the very summit of the mountain, in 
the back-ground, on which it rests. 
It is not easy to form an adequate conception of these truly 
wonderful productions of Nature. Their magnitude, their 
beauty, and the contrast they form with the gloomy rocks a- 
round, produce sensations of lively interest. Their upper sur- 
faces are generally concave ; the higher parts are always cover- 
ed with snow, and have a beautiful appearance ; but the lower 
parts, in the latter end of every summer, present a bare surface 
of ice. The front of each, which varies in height from the le- 
vel of the ocean, to 400 or 500 feet above it, lies parallel with 
the shore, and is generally washed by the sea. This part, rest- 
ing on the strand, is undermined to such an extent by the sea, 
when in any way turbulent, that immense masses, loosened by 
the freezing of water lodged in the recesses in winter, or by the 
effect of streams of water running over its surface and through 
ks chasms in summer, break asunder, and with a thundering 
