The polar and tropical worlds : a description of man and nature in the polar and equatorial regions of the globe . of a turbulent ocean are mightycauses of disruption, or strong impediments to congelation. Both Lieutenantde Haven and Sir Francis MClintock* were helplessly carried along, in thedepth of winter, by the pack-ice in Lancaster Sound and Baffins Bay. Aberg impelled by a strong under-current rips open an ice-field as if it were athin sheet of glass ; and in channels, or on coasts where the tides rise to a con-siderable height, their flux and reflux is continually opening crevices and
The polar and tropical worlds : a description of man and nature in the polar and equatorial regions of the globe . of a turbulent ocean are mightycauses of disruption, or strong impediments to congelation. Both Lieutenantde Haven and Sir Francis MClintock* were helplessly carried along, in thedepth of winter, by the pack-ice in Lancaster Sound and Baffins Bay. Aberg impelled by a strong under-current rips open an ice-field as if it were athin sheet of glass ; and in channels, or on coasts where the tides rise to a con-siderable height, their flux and reflux is continually opening crevices and lanesin the ice which covers the Avaters. That even in the highest latitudes the seadoes not close except when at rest, was fully experienced by Dr. Hayes duringhis wintering at Port Foulke; for at all times, even when the temperature ofthe air was below the freezing-point of mercury, he could hear from the deckof his schooner the roar of the beating waves. From all these causes therehas at no point within the Arctic Circle been found a firm ice-belt extending, * See Chapter XXXII. 56 THE POLAR WOULD. :f*^. 1. AN ARCTIC CHANNEL. cither in winter or in summer, more than from fifty to a hundred miles fromhind. And even in the narrow channels separating the islands of the ParryArchipelago, or at the mouth of Smith Sound, the waters will not freeze over,except when sheltered by the land, or when an ice-pack, accumulated by longcontinuance of winds from one quarter, affords the same protection. But the constant motion of the Polar Sea, wherever it expands to a consider- THE ARCTIC SEAS. 57 ablo breadth, would be iusuffiuient to prevent its total congelation, if it werenot assisted by other physical causes. A magnificent system of currents iscontinually displacing the waters of the ocean, and forcing the warm floods ofthe trojiical regions to wander to the pole, while the cold streams of the frigidzone are as constantly migrating toward the Equator. Thus we see the GulfStream flowing
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