R E M A R K S on T HfE
i c e . -febls; but whofoever, has fpent feveral winters in countries, which
are fubjcdt to intenfe frofts, will find nothing extraordinary or difficult
in this argument: dor it is a well-known.faft in cold countries,
that the ice, which covers -their lakes and rivers, ■ is -often opaque,
efpecially when the frof! fets in, accompanied b y ;a fall o ffn ow ;
for, in thofe-.instances, the ice looks, before .i t hardens,, like a
dough or pafte, and when congealed i t is -opaque and white; however
in fpring, a rain and the thaw, followed by frofty nights,
change the opacity and colour of the ice, and make it. quite tranf-
,parent and colourlefs like a crylial-; but, in cafe the thaw continues,
and it ceafes entirely to.freeze, the fame tranfparent. ice becomes
foft and porous, and turns again entirely opaque *.' This, I
believe, may be applicable to the ice feen by us in the ocean. The
field-ice was commonly opaque ; fome o f the large maffes, probably
drenched by rain, and frozen again, were tranfparent and pellucid-;
but the fmall fragments o f loofe ice, formed by .the decay o f the
large maffes, and foaked by long continued rains, we found to be
porous, foft, and opaque.
It is likewife urged as an argument again!! the formation o f fice
fin the ocean, that it always requires land, in order to have a p o in t"
.upon which it may be fixed f . Firft, I obferve, that in Mr.
Nairnes
*• Mailcn’s Ilccueil dcs Voyagcsau Nord. tom. 2, P.-62.
fi- Buffon, Hift, Nat. vol. j. p. 34.
W A T E R '• a n i> t h e - - O C E A N . 95
Nairne’s experiments,1 the ice was generated on the furface, and was-
ieen fhootihg cryftals downwards; which evidently evinces, in my
opinion, that ice is there formed-or generated where the intenfeft-
cold is ; as the air fobner cools the furface; than the depth o f the-
ocean, the ice fhoots natürally downwards, and cools the ocean
more and more, by which it is prepared for -further-congelation-.- T
fuppofe, however, that this happéns'always during calms, which-
are not, uncommon, in high latitudes,, as we experienced fin the
late expedition. Nbr does land feem abfolutely neceffary in order
to fix the ice ; for this-may be done with as: much eafe and propriety
to the large ice-mountains, which remain uridiffolved floating
in the ocean in high latitudes -;- or it may, perhaps, not be impro- -
per to fuppofe, that the whole Polar region,«from 80»-and upwards,
in. the..Southern hemifphere, remains,a folid ice for feveral years together,
to which yearly a new circle office is.added, and of which,,
however, part- is broken off by the- winds,- and the return o f the
mild feafon. Wherever, the ice floats in.large.maffes, and fome-
times in fiompaft . bodies formed, o f an. infinite number o f fmall-
pieces, there it- is - by-no-means difficult to freeze the whole into-
one piece, for, among!! the ice,-the wind has. n o ta power o f raif-
ing high and.great waves,. This circumftance was not entirely unknown
to-the’ancients; and it is probable they acquired this information
from the natives o f ancient Gaul, and from the Britons,
and
i c e -.