242 
SEAL-HUNTING. 
the brig. The berg indeed vanished long before the 
sun-thermometers indicated a noon-temperature above 
32°. 
“ The changes of this ice at temperatures far below 
the freezing-point confirm the views I formed upon my 
last cruise as to the limited influence of direct thaw. 
I am convinced that the expansion of the ice after the 
contraction of low temperatures, and the infiltrative 
or endosmometric changes thus induced,—the differing 
temperatures of sea-water and ice, and their chemical 
relations,—the mechanical action of pressure, collapse, 
fracture, and disruption,—the effects of sun-heated 
snow-surfaces, falls of warm snow, currents, wind, 
drifts, and wave-action,— all these leave the great 
mass of the Polar ice-surfaces so broken, disintegrated, 
and reduced, when the extreme cold abates, and so 
changed in structure and molecular character, that 
the few weeks of summer thaw have but a subsidiary 
office to perform in completing their destruction. 
“ Seal of the Hispid variety, 
the Netsik of the Esquimaux and 
Danes, grow still more numerous 
on the level floes, lying cautiously 
in the sun beside their atltiJceS ir> 
By means of the Esquimaux stra¬ 
tagem of a white screen pushed 
forward on a sledge until the 
concealed hunter comes within 
range, Hans has shot four of 
them. We have more fresh meat than we can eat. 
