The shores of Greenland are so beset with ice, that, in many places, it is quite impossible even for a boat to find a landing.

The Greenlanders call this launching of an iceberg, the calving of the ice-blink; and Mr. Scoresby was once so fortunate as to witness it. "A strong north-westerly swell having for some hours been breaking on the shore, had loosened a number of fragments attached to the iceberg, and various heaps of broken ice denoted recent shoots of the seaward edge. As we rowed towards it, with a view of proceeding close to its base, I observed a few little pieces fall from the top; and while my eye was fixed upon the place, an immense column, probably fifty feet square, and one hundred and fifty feet high, began to leave the parent ice at the top, and, leaning majestically forward, with an accelerated velocity, fell, with an awful crash, into the sea. The water into which it plunged was converted into an appearance of vapour, or smoke, like that from a furious cannonading. The noise was equal to that of thunder, which it nearly resembled. The column which fell was nearly square, and in magnitude resembled a church. It broke into thousands of pieces."

Almost every iceberg, like every glacier, is covered with masses of stone from the size of a walnut to that of a house. As the iceberg melts, these stones are deposited in various parts of the ocean, and resemble the boulder stones which have been left in places from which glaciers have long receded.

CHAPTER VI.

THE BREAKING UP OF FROST-THE EISGANG-THAWING OF THE NEVA -BREAKING UP OF THE ICE ON THE CANADIAN LAKES-THE GROUND SWELL-PENKNIFE-ICE-CUTTING OUT-ICE-SAWS.

Muttering, the winds at eve, with blunted point,
Blow hollow blustering from the south. Subdued,
The frost resolves into a trickling thaw.

Spotted the mountains shine; loose sleet descends,
And floods the country round. The rivers swell,
Of bonds impatient. Sudden from the hills,
O'er rocks and woods, in broad brown cataracts,
A thousand snow-fed torrents shoot at once;
And, where they rush, the wide-resounding plain
Is left one slimy waste.

THE breaking up of frost is seldom attended with any very remarkable effects in this country; but in those ice-bound lands, where the cold has full sway for several months of the year, the case is very different. In the following description we, have a vivid picture of the breaking up of ice on the shores of the Baltic:

"The soft hand of spring imperceptibly withdraws the bolts and bars of winter, while the earth,

like a drowsy child 'twixt sleeping and waking, flings off one wrapper after another, and opes its heavy lids in showers of sweet rivulets. And the snow disappears, and the brown earth peeps almost dry from beneath; and you wonder where all the mountains of moisture are gone. But wait;-the rivers are still locked, and though a strong current is pouring on their surface, yet, from the high bridge, the green ice is still seen deep below, firm as a rock; and dogs go splashing over in the old track; and peasants, with their horses, venture long after it seems prudent. At length a sound like distant thunder, or the crashing of a forest, meets your ear, and the words "der Eisgang, der Eisgang!"* pass pass from mouth to mouth; and those who would witness this northern scene, hurry out to the old stone bridge, and are obliged to take a circuitous route, for the waters have risen ankle deep. And then another crash, and you double your pace, regardless of wet feet: and are startled at the change which a few hours have produced. On the one side, close besetting the bridge, and high up the banks, lies a field of ice, lifting the

* Literally, "the ice-going," which is not fully expressed by the English word "thaw."