MAGNIFICENT FLOE. 
409 
t 
or the North Baffin’s Straits. This ice, though pure 
and beautiful, could never have been created in any 
single winter. It has made me understand for the 
first time the startling stories of Wrangell. This floe 
is now more than two hundred and fifty yards long by 
four hundred wide ; a size too large for infraposition 
of tables, while its purity precludes the idea of ground 
ice. Its depth, ascertained from its mean line of flo- 
tation, exceeds forty feet. Its surface is level, and the 
appearance, looking down into its pure depths, beau- 
tiful beyond description. It forms part of a great field, 
miles in circumference, as similar coaptating fragments 
are seen in every direction ; the great swell of the 5th 
having no doubt destroyed its integrity. From what 
great winter basin comes this colossal ice T’ 
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f 
Al'PilOACHlWG DISCO. 
