I c 
nigged mountains, and are fometimes five or fix hundred 
yards thick ; but the far greater part is concealed beneath 
the water, Thefe are continually increafed in height by 
the freezing of the fpray of the lea, or of the melting of 
the fnow, which falls on them. Thofe which remain in 
this frozen climate receive continual growth ; others are 
gradually wafted by the northern winds into fouthern la¬ 
titudes, and melt by degrees by the heat of the fun, till 
they wafte away, or dillippear in the boundlefs element. 
The collifion of the great fields of ice, in high latitudes, 
is often attended with a noife that for a time takes away 
the fenfe of hearing any thing elfe ; and the fmaller with 
a grinding of unlpeakable horror. The water which 
dallies againft the mountainous ice freezes into an infinite 
variety of forms; and gives the voyager ideal towns, 
ftreets, churches, fteeples, and every fhape which imagi¬ 
nation can frame. 
Another clals of curious forms affumed by ice is called 
Icebergs. Thefe are large bodies of ice filling the valleys 
between the high mountains in northern latitudes. Among 
the moll remarkable are thofe of the eaft coall of Spitz- 
bergen. They are l'even in number, but at confiderable 
diltances from each other; each fills the valleys for trails 
unknown, in a region totally inacceffible in the internal 
parts. The glaciers of Swilferland feem contemptible to 
thefe; but prefent often a fimilar front into fome lower 
valley. The lall exhibits over the lea a front three hun¬ 
dred feet high, emulating the emerald in colour: cata¬ 
racts of melted fnow precipitate down various parts, and 
black fpiring mountains, itreaked with white, bound the 
Tides, and rife crag above crag, as far as eye can reach in 
the back ground. At times immenfe fragments break 
off, and tumble into the water with a molt alarming 
dalhing. A piece of this vivid green fubftance has fallen, 
and grounded in twenty-four fathoms water, and fpired 
above the furface fifty feet. Similar icebergs are frequent 
in all the arCfic regions; and to their lapfes is owing the 
folid mountainous ice which infefts thofe feas. Froft 
fports wonderfully with thefe icebergs, and gives them 
majeltic as well as other mod lingular forms. Malles 
have been feen affuming the lhape of a Gothic church, 
with arched windows and doors, and all the rich drapery 
of that flyle, compoled of what an Arabian tale would 
Icarcely dare to relate, of cryltal of the richeit fapphirine 
blue: tables with one or more feet; and often immenfe 
flat-roofed temples,' like thofe of Luxor in Egypt, fup- 
ported by round tranfparent columns of ccerulean hue, 
float by the altonilhed fpeflator. Thefe icebergs are the 
creation of ages, and receive annually additional height 
by the falling of fnows and of rain,'which often inftantly 
freezes, and more than repairs the lofs occalioned by the 
influence of the melting fun. See the article Glacier, 
vol. viii. p. 586. 
Here it may not be amifs to notice a phenomenon cal¬ 
led the freezing rain, or raining ice , a very uncommon' 
kind of fliower, which fell in the well of England, in De¬ 
cember 1672. (See the Philof. TranfaCl. No. 90.) This 
rain, as loon as it touched any thing above ground, as a 
bough, or the like, immediately fettled into ice ; and by 
multiplying and enlarging the icicles, it broke all down 
with its weight. The rain that fell on the fnow imme¬ 
diately froze into ice, without finking in the fnow at all. 
It made an incredible deftruclion of trees, beyond any 
thing in all hiltory. “ Had it concluded with lome gull 
of wind,” fays a gentleman on the fpot, “ it might have 
been of terrible conlequence.” The fprig of an alh-tree, 
of juft three quarters of a pound, being weighed, the ice 
thereon weighed lixteen pounds. Some were frighted 
with the nolle in the air; till they difeerned it was the 
clatter of the ice among the boughs dallied againft each 
other. Dr. Beale obferves, that there was no confiderable 
froft obferved on the ground during the whole; whence 
he concludes, that a froll may be very fierce and dange¬ 
rous on-the tops of fome hills; while, in other places, it 
keeps at two, three, or four, feet diltance above the 
! E. 719 
ground, rivers, lakes, See. and may wander about, very 
furioufly in fome places, and be remifs in others, not far 
off. This icy rain was followed by glowing heats, and 
a wonderful forwardnefs of vegetation. 
At Peterlburg in Ruffia, the covering of the Neva 
with ice, and the breaking up of it, are remarkable phe¬ 
nomena. When the ice is fetting-in, as it is called, fmall 
detached flakes of ice are feen floating down the current, 
which foon grow into large fields, and acquire fo great a 
momentum, that the bridges muff be haffily taken afun- 
der, to prevent their being carried away by the ice, a 
difidler which has happened more than once. Thefe 
large plains of ice continue for a day or two palling with 
the current, while the boats are feen rowing between 
them ; till all at once the floating ice ftops, either by the 
gulf being already doled below, or the flakes of ice 
f reezing together; when immediately foot-paffengers, who 
have been waiting on the fhores for this happy moment, 
go over in all fafety. Nothing is more common than to 
fee boats eroding the river, and, in two hours afterwards, 
to behold hundreds of people going over on foot. No 
lefs rapid is the departure of the ice. In the fpring, the 
firll indication of this approaching event is the Handing 
of the fnow-water on the ice; then the ice becomes more 
porous, or divides into fpiculse, lets rlie water through, 
and becomes of a blackilh colour. At length it parts, 
while the roads that have been well trod during the 
winter llill remain;- fo that often foot-paffengers are feen 
on thefe roads, and, between them and the floating Iheets 
of ice, boats in great numbers parting and repaffing. By 
the force of the current, and fhock.s received from the 
floating ice, at length the roads give way; the ice con¬ 
tinues to fall down with the dream for a day or two to 
the gulf, and the whole river is clear. A week or a 
fortnight after this, the ice of the Lagoda comes down ; 
which, according as the wind may happen to be, continues 
a couple or more days, fometimes as many weeks, and 
renders the atmofphere uncommonly chill. 
The ice and the cold are of fervice to the inhabitants 
in various ways. Diltances are much Ihortened by their 
means, inafmuch as people, horfes, and carriages of all forts, 
and of ever lb great burden, can crofs the Neva, and the 
other rivers, lakes, and canals, in all places and directions; 
and the Cronftadt gulf lupplies, in fome meafure, the 
want of navigation during the winter, by the tranfport 
of commodities of every denomination over the ice. As 
ice-cellars here are a neceffary of life, for keeping pro- 
vifions of all kinds during the futnmer, fo every houfe in 
every quarter of the town is provided with one of them, 
to be filled with large blocks cut out of the river. This 
operation generally takes place about the beginning of 
February. The ice alfo promotes the pleafure of the 
inhabitants, by giving them an opportunity for the diver- 
fion of fledge and horle-racing, and for that of the ice- 
hills, fo much admired by the populace. The weight of 
thefe ice-hills, together with that of a multitude fometimes 
of 5000 or 6000 perfons handing about them on holidays, 
give the fpeftator a furpriling idea of the ftrength and 
iolidity of the ice. They are conftrucled in the fol¬ 
lowing manner. A fcafrolding is railed upon the river 
about thirty feet in height, with a landing-place on the 
top, the aicent to which is by a ladder. From this fum- 
mit a Hoping plane of boards, about four yards broad 
and thirty long, defcends to the fuperficies of the river: 
it is lupported by ftrong poles gradually decreafing in 
height, and its Tides are defended by a parapet of planks. 
Upon thefe boards are laid fquare maffes of ice about 
four inches thick, which being firll fmoothed with the 
axe and laid clofe to each other, are then lprinkled with 
water: by thefe means they coalefce, and, adhering to 
the boards, immediately form an inclined plane of pure 
ice. From the bottom of this plain the lnow is cleared 
away for the length of 200 yards and the breadth of four, 
upon the level bed of the river; and the tides of this 
courle, as well as the Tides and top of the fcaffolding, are 
ornamented 
