FORMAT ION OF ICE FLOES. 
209 
at the rate of some seven knots in the hour, and the 
ice packing, is driven against ice adhering to the land. 
Acting against such fixed masses the driven ice is 
overlapped with that it is forced against, and little 
icebergs are quickly formed by the accumulatation of 
heaped-up floes. 
In this way the ice is formed into vast bergs, 
rugged and torn, dashed up into heaps, one thickness 
overlaying another, and giving the ice the appearance 
of laminated floors. The ice to the westward of Spitz- 
bergen is no doubt rough in places, but the roughness 
is easily accounted for. In general the surface is per¬ 
fectly level, and it almost satisfied us that it is formed 
upon the surface of the sea, which, getting broken up 
in the spring, sometimes receives the portions of some 
toppling iceberg rudely broken off, and the fragments 
strewn about make what hummocks and other rough 
projections are seen upon its surface. In rough weather 
it is possible that two wedge-shaped masses may be 
driven together with sufficient force to lift some luck¬ 
less ship that may be in the way some distance into 
the air ; but the chances are greatly in her favour 
that the cause being removed the ice will slip back 
into its former position and restore the uninjured craft 
once more to her place upon the sea; in fact, the 
experienced men who sail in these seas, with whom 
