5^58 Dr Latta on Ice-Bergs, 
bergs of Spitzbergen, which I had the opportunity of personally 
observing. 
I had the honour to be appointed his surgeon and com- 
panion for 1818, in a voyage to the Arctic Ocean. Towards the 
end of July, finding no object more worthy of our attention, 
we directed our course to the north-west shore of Spitzbergen. 
Among our excursions on the coast of that island, we visited the 
ice-bergs. Having manned two boats, we directed our course 
to tliat part of the shore where the Seven Ice-bergs of navigators 
are situated. These, however, presenting nothing novel to our 
Oaptain, after viewing the frightful precipice which terminates 
the seaward extremity of one of the principal masses, he return- 
ed to the ship. I, with the remaining boat, landed a little to the 
south of this ice-berg, and having shot a few birds, and collect- 
ed some plants and minerals, the natural productions of the 
beach, I sent the boat round to meet me at the north side, and 
made preparations to cross the berg, which lies from east to 
west ; one of the sailors accompanied me, and, both armed with 
muskets loaded with ball, we commenced our journey. 
Captain Scoresby remarks, that ‘‘ the upper surfaces of these 
ice-bergs is generally concave.” The notice of the stranger is very 
soon attracted by the convexity of all that portion of the ice-berg 
which lies under the summer snow-line, which may extend a league 
or so from the shore. This convexity gradually becomes less ob- 
vious as the mass extends inland, till, among the higher lands 
in the interior, it becomes concave. Where the ice-berg is li- 
mited by the mountains below the snow-line, it is very steep on 
both sides ; but, from the roughness of the surface, our ascent 
was rendered easy. It may be difficult to account for this ab- 
ruptness, which is well marked on both sides of the mass. I think, 
from its being only found below the snow-line, that the bare 
mould on the mountain’s side, destitute of its reflecting surface, 
had imbibed so much caloric from the sun’s rays, as, partly by 
heating the atmosphere in the vicinity, partly by radiation, to 
prove sufficient to melt the adjacent ice, and thus assist another 
cause, afterwards to be noticed, in rendering the ice-berg convex. 
Having got on the more horizontal surface, we soon found 
more formidable obstacles to encounter, the ice being traversed 
