Dr Latta on tce-Bergs. 
gulf. My imprudence here originated, in finding many of 
these coverings sufficiently strong to sustain the weight of 
my body; and expecting to find here the same firmness of 
constitution as in others, I was tempted, by way of prevent- 
ing a circuitous route, to cross this, which was but a thin cake 
of snow laid over an unfathomable gulf, an attempt which 
had nearly proved fatal. The situation of a rent covered with 
snow, could, in general, easily be discovered, being whiter than 
the rest, though sometimes we had not this criterion to be 
directed by, as we had sometimes to cross considerable patches 
of snow. Proceeding with much caution, we arrived in safe- 
ty at the north side of the berg, where the boat had been 
waiting our arrival. 
I consider the breadth of this extraordinary accumulation to 
exceed an English mile ; its extent inland was hid under the 
common covering of snow. 
Having got into the boat, we proceeded along the front of 
the icy cliff, which rises from 150 to WO feet above the level of 
the sea. This, from the agitation of the water, was undermin- 
ed to a considerable extent, which receiving the break of a 
heavy swell, produced a noise like distant thunder, occasioned 
by the reverberation through its numerous caverns. 
I was once inclined to consider these ice-bergs as conical, with 
their base towards the sea, whilst their apex rested on the moun- 
tains in the back ground ; and was of the same mind with Captain 
Scoresby, conceiving them as limited on three sides by moun- 
tains, and on a fourth by the sea. But whilst rambling on the 
shores of Spitzbergen, and viewing the coast from the summit 
of a lofty mountain, circumstances came under my observation, 
which Ipd me to consider this as rather an unfit situation for the 
formation of an ice-berg, for by far the greater number of such 
valleys are entirely destitute of such formations; and when these 
occur, they precisely occupy the place which might have been 
occupied by rivulets. These, no doubt, must have been but 
sparingly supplied with water ; in such quantities, however, as in 
process of time to prove sufficient to form ice-bergs. They 
might have received water during the colder seasons of the year 
from internal sources, derived from imbibed water from snow, 
or ice melted, whilst the heat of summer prevailed. The rivu- 
