R E M A R K S o n t h e
the 71° South,, the temperature of the air and océan mu-ft be ftilb
çolder, and that, the rigours- o f an. an-tar.iftic. winter are certainly;
more than fufficient to cool the ocean to 2 84°,. which is requifite
for congealing the aqueous par.ticlesdn it ; i f we moreover eonfider,..
that thefe fevers frofts- are continued during fix. or.eight months o f
the year,., we may. eafily conceive that, there-is time enough, to congeal
large and extenfive maffes o f ice-. But it is likewife certain,.,
that there.is more than one.way,..by. which- thofe immenfe ice malles..
are formed.. W e fuppofe very juilly, that th.e ocean does freeze,
having produced fo many inftances o f it;, we allow, likewife that the.?
ice thus formed in a. calm, perhaps does not exceed three or four
yards in thicknefs * ; a ffor-m probably often breaks, fuch an icefield,,
which Crantz allows to be 200 leagues- one wav', and eighty,
the other; the preffure of the broken. fragments againft one another,
frequently fets one upon the other piece,, and they freeze in
that manner together;- lèverai-fuch doublé' pieces, thrown by another
preffure upon one another, form at laft- large maffes o f miles •
extent, and o f twenty, forty, fixty andmore fathoms.thickn.efs, for .off
a great, bulk and height. M a r t e n s -j- in his defeription of.Spitsbergen,
remarks that the pieces o f ice caufe fo great a noife by their.
Ihock, that the navigator in thofe regions, can only, with difficulty
hear
* Crantz, p. 31.
f Martens Voyages au Nord. tom,. IT, p,.6z,.
W A T E R .AND TH E O .C E A N .
hear the words o f thofe that fpéak; and as the ice-pieces, are thrown i c
one upon another, ice'-mountains are formed by i t . And I obferv-
ed very frequently, in the years- 1772; and. 1773, when' wè were
amöngft the ice, maffes which had the moft evident marks ó f fticli
a formation, being compofed. o f ftrafa of feme feet in thicknefs..
This is in feme meafure confirmed By the ftate in which the C o lack
Markoff found the ice at. th e . diftance. o f 420 miles-from the -
Sibirian coa-fts.. T h e high maffes', were: not found, formed,, a's is *
fufpeéted in-the Sec o n dSitpp lemen t to the Probability of reaching the;
•North Pole-, p . 14 3 -14 5 , .near the land, under.the high cliffs, but far-
out at fea;- and when thefe ice-mountains were climbed -by Markoff,
nothing, but, ice, and no veftiges1 o f land appeared as far ps thé . <
eye- could reach... Th e high: climates- 'near the Poles,- are likewife-
I’ubject to heavy falls o f fn ow,. o f feveral yards in thicknefs,. which
grow* more and moré compact,. and by draws and rain,■ are' formed
into1 folid ice,, wh ich . increafe the.ftupéhd'óus' fize o f the floating..
ice-mountains1-.
Th e fecond'objeftion; againft the freezing of tile oceandritO fuch
ice as-is found-floating in it, is taken ‘frbm'.thê'ó/öéft.y'.of-'ice‘formed
in- fait-water;- bëeaufe the largeftImaffès'aré''cJöiflmonly trahfparent:
like cryftal, with a fine blue tinftj.-caufeti by the refleiStibn' o f the
fea. This argument is very fpecious,, and might be deemed unanswerable
to thofe,. who are not ufed to -cold-winters, and their ef-
S fedts ;„