8gj * R , E M ’ A R. K S: o.n t h e
ic e , M a r k o f f . with'.fome.other perfona'Was-.fent:byi.tkmRuflian:.Go~
vernnient to explore.the Norlk-Sea, .butfinding it nextto.impof-
fibleto make any .progrefs during, furnmer,'.'on account: of.'the vaft-
quantities, .of >icB .commonly .filling .this, oceans he at laft determined, i
to try the experiment during w in te r ;. he therefore, took: feveral:
fledges drawn according to the. cuftom .o f. the, country by dogs*
which.-commonly go about 80 or io o werfts.per .day, 105 of.which 1
make, a degree. And on March the ly th , Old Style, with this:
caravan o f nine perfons, he left the fhores o f Sibiria at the mouth,
of the river Yana, under the 7 1 “ o f North latitudes and proceeded;,
for feven days together .Northward, fo that he had reached^ at leaft
the 77° or 78° North latitude, when he was flopped by the ice,,
which there began to appear in the lhape o f prodigious, moun-.
tains. He climbed up to the top o f fome o f thefe ice mountains,,
but feeing from thence no land, nor any thing except ice,, as. far as
the eye could reach, and having befides no more food for his dogs:
left, he thought it very neceffacy to return,, which he with great.1
difficulty performed, on April the 3d, as feveral o f the dogs which
had perifhed for..want, were employed to fupport thofe that remained
alive. Thefe. fails, I believe, wiH convince the unprejudiced
reader, that there are other feas befides the B&ck Sea, which1
really do freeze in winter, and that the ice carried down the rivers,,
could not at leaft freeze the German Ocean between Norway and.
X Denmark,
W A T E R a n d t h b O C E A N . %
Denmark, becaufe the rivers there are fofmall, and bear avery incou-
fiderable proportion to the immenfe ocean, which according, to experiments
made by Mr. Wilke * is very fait, though near the
land, in the Swedifh harbour o f Landfcrona.
Now, i f fix or feven degrees ó f latitude, Containing from 360 to
420 fea miles, are not to be reckoned a great diftance from the land,
Ido not know in what mariner to argue, becaufe no diftance whatfoe-
ver will be reckoned far from any land. Nay, i f the Coffack Markoff,
being- mounted on one o f the higheft ice-mountains, may be
allowed to fee at leaft to the diftance o f 20 leagues, the extent alluded
to above, muft then be increafed to 480 Englilh fea-miles;
which certainly is very confiderable, and makes it more than probable,
that the ocean is frozen in winter, in high Northern latitudes,
even as far as the Role. Befides, it invalidates the argument,
which thefe gentlemen wifh to infer from thence, that the ocean
dóes not freeze in high latitudes, ejpectally where there is a confider-
ably broadfea: for we have fhewn inftances to the contrary..
But M . de Buffon fpeaks o f ice carried down the rivers into the
Northern ocean, and forming there thefe immenfe. quantities o f
ic e ; “ and in cafe, fayshe-f-, we would fuppofe, againft all proba-
« biiity, that at the Pole it could be fo cold as to congeal the fur-
M 2 “ face
* Memoirs of the Swedifti Academy, vól, 3 3. p, 66. •
f BuffonHiff. Nat. tom. 1, p. 313,
ICE,