are large bodies of ice filling the valleys between the high mountains in northern latitudes. Among the most remarkable are those of the east coast of Spitzbergen (see GREENLAND, No. 10.). They are seven in number, but at considerable distances from each other; each fills the valleys for tracts unknown in a region totally inaccessible in the internal parts. The glaciers * of Switzerland seem contemptible to these; but present often a similar front into some lower valley. The last exhibits over the sea a front 300 feet high, emulating the emerald in colour; cataracts of melted snow precipitate down various parts, and black spiring mountains, streaked with white, bound the sides, and rise crag above crag, as far as eye can reach in the background. See Plate CCLXXVIII. At times immense fragments break off, and tumble into the water, with a most alarming dash. A piece of this vivid green substance has fallen, and grounded in 24 fathoms water, and spired above the surface 50 feet †. Simi-

* Phipps's Voyage, p. 70. lar icebergs are frequent in all the Arctic regions; and to their lapses is owing the solid mountainous ice which infests those seas.—Frosts sport wonderfully with these icebergs, and gives them majestic as well as other most singular forms. Masses have been seen assuming the shape of a Gothic church, with arched windows and doors, and all the rich drapery of that style, composed of what an Arabian tale would scarcely dare to relate, of crystal of the richest sapphireine blue; tables with one or more feet; and often immense flat-roofed temples, like those of Luxor on the Nile, supported by round transparent columns of cerulean hue, float by the astonished spectator. These icebergs are the creation of ages, and receive annually additional height by the falling of snows and of rain, which, often instantly freezes, and more than repairs the loss occasioned by the influence of the melting sun.