Dr Latta 'en Ice-Bergs, 
but the trickling sound indicated its being but spai’ing in quan- 
tity. 
5thly, Some of the rents had a drift of snow thrown across 
their mouths, or, as the Captain remarks, “ were filled with it 
to the general level.” I should suppose this would have been 
the first to have suffered from the solvent or abrasive power of 
the water, had the chasms been produced through the influence 
of that fluid. 
I am inclined to look for the real cause of these rents in the 
expansive power of water, when subjected to the freezing pro- 
cess. Suppose the ice-berg to be in its infancy, and but a few 
feet thick, the heat of summer will render it spongy and hollow ; 
here and there its under surface v/ill be furrowed with stream- 
lets passing over its bed ; all these vacancies will be occupied by 
water. On the return of winter, by the expansive power ex- 
erted by the water, when its particles assume an arrangement 
for the formation of ice, the walls of the cayities will be forced 
asunder, and a partial rent formed. Into these rents water will 
flow, which also becoming solid, will exert a still more powerful 
force, enlarging the rents, extending them in length, width and 
depth ; whilst the damming up and freezing of the little streams 
below, will assist the action by elevating the mass from its bed. 
This process annually repeated, might induce the appearance 
now presented by the ice-bergs ; and being wedged in between 
mountains, they cannot extend laterally, and necessarily be- 
come arched or convex, impelled, as it were, by a central force 
in the expansion of water. 
After contemplating the magnificence of these chasms, we 
made all possible speed to gain the northern boundary of the 
ice-berg, though not without difficulty and danger. We were 
often obliged to retrace our steps, or deviate considerably from 
our course, the chinks being too wide to admit of our leaping 
across. Some of these were rendered particularly dangerous, 
from the drifted snow covering their mouths proving too weak 
to support the weight of the body. In one of these, in at- 
tempting to walk across the ice-berg, I imprudently slept into 
a narrow chasm filled with snow to the general level ; and im 
mediately plunged up to the shoulders, and might, but foi 
the sudden extension of my arms, have been buried in th 
