ice, which accumulating, form those enormous masses so destructive to
mariners. These masses are the most abundant in the Strait of Waigat,
which is entirely frozen over the greatest part of the year, and are
formed by the great flakes which the river Oby almost continually brings
there; they attach themselves along the coasts, and heap up to a
considerable height on both sides, but the middle of the strait is the
last part which freezes, and where the ice is the lowest. When the wind
ceases to blow from the North, and comes in the direction of the Strait,
the ice begins to thaw and break in the middle; afterwards it loosens
from the sides in great masses, which are carried into the high sea. The
wind, which all winter blows from the north over the frozen countries of
Nova Zembla, renders the country watered by the Oby, and all Siberia, so
cold, that even at Tobolski, which is in the 57th degree, there are no
fruit trees, while at Sweden, Stockholm, and even in higher latitudes,
there are both fruit trees and pulse. This difference does not proceed,
as it has been thought, from the sea of Lapland being warmer than the
Straits; nor from the land of Nova Zembla being colder than Lapland; but
solely from the Baltic, and the Gulph of Bothnia, tempering the rigour
of the north winds, whereas in Siberia there is nothing that can
temperate the cold. It is a fact founded on experience, that it is never
so cold on the sea coasts as in the inland parts of a country. There
are plants which stand the winter in London exposed to the open air,
that cannot be preserved at Paris; and Siberia, which is a vast
continent, is for this reason colder than Sweden, which is surrounded on
all sides by the sea.
The coldest country in the world is Spitzbergen: it lies in the 78th
degree of north latitude, and is entirely formed of small peaked
mountains; these mountains are composed of gravel, and flat stones
somewhat like slate, heaped one on the other; which, it is affirmed by
navigators, are raised by the wind, and increase so quick, that new ones
are discovered every year. The rein-deer is the only animal seen here,
which feeds on a short grass and moss. On the top of these little
mountains, and at more than a mile from the sea, the mast of a ship was
found with a pully fastened to one of its ends, which gives room to
suppose that the sea once covered the tops of these mountains, and that
this country is but of modern date; it is uninhabited, and
uninhabitable; the soil of these small mountains has no consistence, but
is loose, and so cold and penetrating a vapour strikes from it, that it
is impossible to remain any length of time thereon.
The vessels which go to Spitzbergen for the whale fishery, arrive there
early in the month of July, and take their departure from it about the
15th of August, the ice preventing them from entering the sea earlier,
or quiting it after. Prodigious pieces of ice, 60, 70, and 80 fathoms
thick are seen there, and there are some parts of it where the sea
appears frozen to the very bottom[329:A]: this ice, which is so high
above the level of the sea, is as clear and transparent as glass.
There is also much ice in the seas of North America, as in Ascension
Bay, in the Straits of Hudson, Cumberland, Davis, Forbishers, &c. Robert
Lade asserts that the mountains of Friezeland are entirely covered with
snow, and its coasts with ice, like a bulwark, which prevents any
approaching them. "It is, says he, very remarkable, that in this sea we
meet with islands of ice more than half a mile round, extremely high,
and 70 or 80 fathoms deep; this ice, which is sweet, is perhaps formed
in the rivers or straits of the neighbouring lands, &c. These islands
or mountains of ice are so moveable, that in stormy weather they follow
the track of a ship, as if they were drawn along in the same furrow by a
rope. There are some of them tower so high above the water, as to
surpass the tops of the masts of the largest vessels."[330:A]
In the collection of voyages made for the service of the Dutch East
India Company, we meet with the following account of the ice at Nova
Zembla:--"At Cape Troost the weather was so foggy as to oblige us to
moor the vessel to a mountain of ice, which was 36 fathoms deep in the
water, and about 16 fathoms out of it.
"On the 10th of August the ice dividing, it began to float, and then we
observed that the large piece of ice, to which the ship had been moored,
touched the bottom, as all the others passing by struck against without
moving it. We then began to fear being inclosed between the ice, that we
should either be frozen in or crushed to pieces, and therefore
endeavoured to avoid the danger by attempting to get into another
latitude, in doing of which the vessel was forced through the floating
ice, which made a tremendous noise, and seemingly to a great distance;
at length we moored to another mountain, for the purpose of remaining
there that night.
"During the first watch the ice began to split with an inexpressible
noise, and the ship keeping to the current, in which the ice was now
floating, we were obliged to cut the cable to avoid it; we reckoned more
than 400 large mountains of ice, which were 10 fathoms under and
appeared more than 2 fathoms above water.
"We afterwards moored the vessel to another mountain of ice, which
reached above 6 fathoms under water. As soon as we were fixed we
perceived another piece beyond us, which terminated in a point, and went
to the bottom of the sea; we advanced towards it, and found it 20
fathoms under water, and 12 above the surface.
"The 11th we reached another large shelve of ice, 18 fathoms under
water, and 10 above it.
"The 21st the Dutch got pretty far in among the ice, and remained there
the whole night; the next morning they moored their vessel to a large
bank of ice, which they ascended, and considered as a very singular
phenomenon, that its top was covered with earth, and they found near 40
eggs thereon. The colour was not the common colour of ice, but a fine
sky blue. Those who were on it had various conjectures from this
circumstance, some contending it was an effect of the ice, while others
maintained it to be a mass of frozen earth. It was about eighteen
fathoms under water, and ten above."[332:A]
Wafer relates, that near Terra del Fuega he met with many high floating
pieces of ice, which he at first mistook for islands. Some appeared a
mile or two in length, and the largest not less than 4 or 500 feet above
the water.
All this ice, as I have observed in the sixth article, was brought
thither by the rivers; the ice in the sea of Nova Zembla, and the
Straits of Waigat come from the Oby, and perhaps from Jenisca, and other
great rivers of Siberia and Tartary; that in Hudson's Straits, from
Ascension Bay, into which many of the North American rivers fall; that
of Terra del Fuega, from the southern continent. If there are less on
the North coasts of Lapland, than on those of Siberia, and the Straits
of Waigat, it is because all the rivers of Lapland fall into the Gulph
of Bothnia, and none go into the northern sea. The ice may also be
formed in the straits, where the tides swell much higher than in the
open sea, and where, consequently, the ice that is at the surface may
heap up and form those mountains, which are several fathoms high; but
with respect to those which are 4 or 500 feet high, they appear to be
formed on high coasts; and I imagine that when the snow which covers the
tops of these coasts melts, the water flows on the flakes of ice, and
being frozen thereon, thus increases the size of the first until it
comes to that amazing height. That afterwards, in a warm summer, these
hills of ice loosen from the coasts by the action of the wind and motion
of the sea, or perhaps even by their own weight, and are driven as the
wind directs, so that they at length may arrive into temperate climates
before they are entirely melted.
FOOTNOTES:
[306:A] See Racolta d'autori che trattano del motto dell' acque, vol. 1,
page 123.
[312:A] See Keil's Examination of Burnet's Theory, page 126.
[313:A] See Shaw's Travels, vol. ii, page 71.
[317:A] See Boyle, vol. iii. page 217.
[321:A] See Ovington's Travels, vol. ii. page 290.
[323:A] See Phil. Trans. Abr. vol. vi. part ii. page 119.
[325:A] Phil. Trans. vol. vi. part ii. page 19.
[326:A] See Varenii Geograph. gen. page 48.
[329:A] In contradiction to this idea it is now a generally received
opinion, that the mountains of ice in the North and South Seas are
exactly the same depth under as they are height above the surface of the
water.
[330:A] See the Voyages of Lade, vol. ii, page 305, &.
[332:A] Voyage of the Dutch to the North, vol. 1, 3. Page 49.
_END OF THE FIRST VOLUME._
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the
original.
The following changes have been made to the original text:
Page vi: It would have been singular[original has "singuar"]
Page 9: moon, which are the causes of["of" missing in
original] it
Page 23: these particles[original has "particels"] of earth
and stone
Page 31: In a word, the materials[original has "mateterials"]
of the globe
Page 37: has occurred, and in my opinion[original has
"oppinion"] very naturally
Page 51: These[original has "these"] could not have been
occasioned
Page 74: in the regions of the sky [original has "fky"]
Page 94: that fire cannot[original has "connot"] subsist
Page 94: planets at[original has "as"] the time of their
quitting the sun
Page 97: there will be detached[original has "detatched"] from
its equator
Page 104: which are as 229 to 230.[period missing in original]
Page 155: ARTICLE VI.[original has "VII."]
Page 182: conjecture is so much the better[original has
"bettter"] founded
Page 189: where the pits are very deep[original has "deeep"]
Page 192: 23. Sand streaked red[original has "read"] and white
Page 194: In plains surrounded[original has "surounded"] with
hills
Page 198: in France, Flanders, Holland, Spain,[comma missing
in original] Italy
Page 199: 10 of sand, then 2 feet of["of" missing in original]
clay
Page 203: either birds or terrestrial animals."[quotation mark
missing in original]
Page 210: the Alps, and the Apennine[original has "Appenine"]
mountains
Page 225: time much longer than a year."[quotation mark
missing in original]
Page 228: formation is novel, in[original has "n"] comparison
Page 256: resemblance is perfectly exact."[quotation mark
missing in original]
[78:A] Vide Newton, 2d edit. page 525.[period missing in
original]
[177:A] Footnote letter missing in original.
[178:A] See the Hist. of New France, by the Pere Charlevoix.
[letter and period missing in original.
[234:A] See Shaw's Voyages, Vol. ii[original has "11"], pages
40 and 41.
[240:B] Voyage of Paul Lucus, Vol. II[original has "11"], page
380.
[329:A] above the surface of the water.[original has a comma]
[330:A] See the Voyages of Lade, vol. ii.[original has "11"]
page 305, &.
[332:A] Voyage of the Dutch to the North, vol. 1, 3.[original
has a comma] Page 49.