ICE.' The ice floats , in an ocean, which in the fummer of the. Southern
hemifphere: was obferved to be many degrees above the freezing
point; it muft therefore continually melt and'decay. ; and, ast
the difference of-the fpecific gravity. o f common air to frefh water is
nearly as o .o o i or o.crooi to i .oob'; fuppofing both-of the fame'
temperature ; it is-evident that-frefh water mull melt the ice, more-
than common-air, as the particles o f water-,in. contaft with the. ice:
are fo-much heavier ; and, for the fame? reafon as Tea-water is. to?
frefli water as 1.030 to 1.006,. fea-water muft adt ftill more upon?
the ice than frefh-water * . W e had frequent opportunities o f feeing
the effecft o f the fea-water upon the ice,., in diffolving .and-
crumbling large maffes to pieces,. with a crafh- not" inferior to the?
explolion o f guns 4 and fometimes we were at fo fmall a diftance:
from them, that we were fcarce but of the reach of the. danger of-
being cr-ufhed by an ice-rock fplitting in pieces, which, were over-
fetting, each of them having gotten new centers o f gravity. The-
water melted from the ice;, and mixed with the ocean, muft like-
wife cool the temperature o f the fea-water in the latitudes between
50 and 60” South, where thefe particulars were chiefly obferved by?
us. - I t
* However large maiTes of Ice require a long time and a warm climate entirely -to diflolve
them. Sometimes in 40“ North latitude, ice-iflands have been met with in the Atlantic :
and I have been told by an officer, who fpent feveral years at and about Newfoundland! that
a very bulky ice-ifland was driven into the Streights o f Belleifle, where it,was grounded, and
continued a whole fummer, and was not entirely diffolvcd before the fummer of the next year.
ItTeems to be undeniable, that the ice we met with in the open ic e .
-ocean, in romand 67°, or even 71° South latitude, is. formed ftill
-farther to the South. For it had-its origin either near feme land,
,or in the open-ocean. In -the.nrft cafe it muft evidently come from
regions lying beyond‘the tracks of our fhips, i. e. .be-yondoo0-, 67%
and 71 fSouth latitude, as we found no lands, where-t-hefe enormous
quantities o f -ice -could poflibly have been generated. Or, in
the fécond cafe, i f the ice be formed far-from any land, this climate
muft likewife be farther to the South than our tracks, as we never
fell in with ice, which w e ’ could with certainty confider as ftatio-
nàry,, but, on the-contrary, found it commonly in motion. A t
leaft, thedoofe ice between 71° and 50° South -latitude, muft have
come-from the fôfty folid ice-beyond 7 1 ° -or Tome higher latitude.
Other navigators-*, as well as ourfelves, -have met with -ice in low
Southern latitudes,-i. €.-49°, -50°, 5-1°, and 52”, early in the fpring
" and fummer ; confequently it is evident, that it muft have drifted
•to thefe-low latitudes from beyond 60°, 67”, -and 7-1° South latitude.
In the Northern feas, it is a common and obvious, phænomenon,
obferved almoft every year, that the ice moves towards warmer
.-climates. Thefe inftances, therefore, feem to.prove, that there is
either a ftrong current, an attraftion, or ■ fome other caufe ailing
L a . '' . _ s , .. r°gu- -
-•* Dairy tuple's Collcclim o f Toy ages, chiefly in-the Southern Atlantic Ocean.
Altai, p. 34. (aid Capt. 'Bouvet's, p. 4.
Capt. Halley s Joui'“