Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 8).djvu/167

 perpetual snow. I am aware, however, that this depends upon altitude. It is said that there is everlasting ice at the North Pole; {64} but the assertion cannot be correct. The surface of the North Pole consists either of land or ocean; if land it cannot become ice, and if ocean it must continue in a liquid state; for no ocean has ever been known to freeze: the depth of its water, and its perpetual undulation prevent such effect. Besides, in north latitudes as far as eighty or eighty-two, sea fogs are known to prevail, and these too prevent the congelation of the ocean.

The influence of the sun upon the various parts of the earth, during its annual motion, is not yet fully understood; and the effect of local causes adverse from or cooperative with such influence is yet to be learned.[26]

As to the mountains of ice, which have been seen in north latitudes, and which have been mentioned as evidence of the perpetual frost of the North Pole, they, probably, floated from some neighboring bays, such as Baffin's, Hudson's, &c. and were formed by the accumulation of several masses of ice, which were created on the surface of these bays, and also by the additions of snow and rain. This last idea seems to be sanctioned by the fact, that from these mountains, as they are called, rivulets of fresh water, produced by their gradual dissolution, have been known to distil from their summit.

"Local and peculiar causes," with respect to climate, do, in all probability, operate every where. It is, in many cases, as cold in lower, as in higher latitudes. In the latitude of the Island of St. Joseph,[27] it is as cold in winter, as it is at Quebec. One of the great causes of a diversity of