INTERESTING FORMS OF ICE. 
85 
statuary,—and also a sort of portico, with doric 
columns, consisting of capitals, with ovolo, astra¬ 
gal, and other mouldings, with a portion of the 
shaft, supported on a base of ice rendered invisi¬ 
ble by its submersion in the sea. 
These extraordinary resemblances occur the 
most frequently in the drift-ice occupying the 
skirts of the main body of the polar-ice, and par¬ 
ticularly in those masses, on which prodigious 
blocks or hummocks, the original effect of pressure, 
are reared on separate bases. From the detrition 
of the sea-water, during high winds and consider¬ 
able swells, these shapeless masses are often worn 
into such interesting and striking forms, as to 
force themselves ou the attention. The most com¬ 
mon form of artificial appearance is the table. 
In this the stalk is often perfectly circular and 
vertical, and the top exactly on a level. The 
mode of its formation is not difficult to explain. 
The action of the sea, when the surface is ruffled, 
but not turbulent, washes away the ice above the 
floating level, and undermines the top. The oc¬ 
casional revolutions of the ice, to which most of 
the smaller pieces are liable, exposes every part 
progressively to the detrition of the waves, and 
thus produces a stem of a cylindrical form. In a 
manner somewhat similar, I apprehend, the doric 
columns above noticed were produced. In this 
