A VOYAGE TO 
1778. enter the outer edge with a boat; and it was as impoflible 
Au guft.^ f or ^ fl^pg to enter b, as ^ i t been fo many rocks. I 
took particular notice, that it was all pure tranfparent ice, 
except the upper furface, which was a little porous. It ap¬ 
peared to be entirely compofed of frozen fnow, and to have 
been all formed at fea. For, fetting afide the improbability, 
or rather impoflibility, of fuch huge malfes floating out of 
rivers, in which there is hardly water for a boat, none of the 
productions of the land were found incorporated, or fixed 
in it; which mull: have unavoidably been the cafe, had it 
been formed in rivers, either great or fmall. The pieces of 
ice that formed the outer edge of the field, were from forty 
or fifty yards in extent, to four or five; and I judged, that 
the larger pieces reached thirty feet, or more, under the fur- 
face of the water. It alfo appeared to me very improbable, 
that this ice could have been the production of the preced¬ 
ing winter alone. I fhould fuppofe it rather to have been 
the production of a great many winters. Nor was it lefs 
improbable, according to my judgment, that the little that 
remained of the fummer, could cleftroy the tenth part of what 
now fubfifted of this mafs; for the fun had already exerted 
upon it the full influence of his rays. Indeed I am of opi¬ 
nion, that the fun contributes very little toward reducing 
thefe great mafles. For although that luminary is a con- 
fiderable while above the horizon, it feldom Urines out for 
more than a few hours at a time; and often is not feen for 
feveral days in fucceflion. It is the wind, or rather the 
waves railed by the wind, that brings down the bulk of 
thefe enormous mafles, by grinding one piece again!! ano¬ 
ther, and by undermining and waflring away thofe parts 
that lie expofed to the furge of the fea. This was evident, 
from our obferving, that the upper furface of many pieces 
had 
