86 
GREENLAND VOYAGE. 
block of ice two perforations had been produced, 
for which, either the unequal action of the waves 
upon it, or an unequal breadth or degree of hard¬ 
ness of the ice, might account. When the pillars 
on each side of these perforations lift'd become cy¬ 
lindrical, like the' stem of the table above de¬ 
scribed, to which there is always a tendency in 
such masses as revolve,—suppose a piece of the 
roof or entablature to break off, the base, relieved 
of so much weight, would necessarily rise a little 
in the water, and the pillars would be lifted up 
along with it. A continuation of the detrition of 
the wind-lipper, or smaller waves (the piece of ice 
being now supposed to be. in a situation sheltered 
from the main swells of the ocean), would, no 
doubt, reduce the columns below the level of the 
former action, and thus produce a moulding: a 
repetition of this process, after a second mass from 
the top had been accidentally detached (a circum¬ 
stance that is perpetually taking place), would ac¬ 
count for the construction of a second moulding, 
and'so on, until the regular columns that I have 
actually observed, not in one piece of ice only, but 
in three different masses, were completed. Thus, 
the production of architectural resemblances, of a 
very artificial kind, may, I think, be satisfactorily 
explained; but the development of many of the 
other figures that I have seen, can be accounted 
