that which is congealed from the sea-water is flat and even, hard, opaque, resembling white sugar, and incapable of being slid on. The greater pieces or fields are many leagues in length: the lesser are called the meadows of the seals, on which, at times, those animals frolic by hundreds. The motion of the lesser pieces is as rapid as the currents: the greater, which are sometimes 200 leagues long, and sixty or eighty broad, move majestically. The approximation of two great fields produces a most singular phenomenon: they force smaller pieces out of the water, and add them to their own surface, till at length the whole forms an aggregate of tremendous height. They float in the sea like so many rugged mountains, and are sometimes 5 or 600 yards thick, the far greater part of which is concealed beneath the water. Those which remain in this frozen climate receive continual growth; others are gradually wafted into southern latitudes, and melt by degrees by the heat of the sun till they waste away, and disappear in the boundless element.

The collision of the great fields of ice in high latitudes, is often attended with a noise that for a time takes away the sense of hearing any thing else; and that of the lesser with a grinding of unspeakable horror. The water which dashes against the mountainous ice freezes into an infinite variety of forms, and gives the voyager ideal towns, streets, churches, steeples, and every shape which imagination can paint.

West Greenland, which is said to extend as far as 76 deg. N. latitude, was discovered by a Norwegian, named Eric, who sailed from Iceland in quest of adventures so early as the year 982. The country from cape Farewell, in a north-westerly direction, was colonized; but about the year 1376, the invasion of the Esquimaux, and afterwards that dreadful pestilence termed the Black Death, nearly completed the destruction of the settlers, which was finally effected in about a century afterwards.

However, the settlements which during the last 100 years, the Danes have been forming at various points on the west side of Greenland, are more numerous and thriving than those which existed at any former period. They consist of twenty

ene colonies, stretching over an extent of 800 miles. The first establishment is only a single family, occupying Bear island, a little to the east of cape Farewell. Ten other hamlets, composed chiefly of Moravians, are planted at different points, from the latitude of 60 deg. to that of 68 deg. Three settlements are distributed round Disco bay, about the latitude of 69 deg.; and seven more have been extended thence as far as the latitude of 73 deg. But the remoter settlers are a depraved and degenerate race, consisting of Danish convicts and their progeny by the Esquimaux women, or aboriginal Greenlanders. The whole population of those settlements, including the natives themselves, does not exceed 7000; and the annual amount of their trade with Copenhagen, both in exports and imports, is only about 30,000l. sterling.

The Greenlanders' dress consists principally of the skins of rein-deer, seals, and birds. Their outer garment reaches about half way down the thigh, and is sewed fast on all sides like a waggoner's frock, but not so long or so loose; at the top of this is fastened a cap or hood, which they can draw over their heads as a defence against the wet and cold. These garments are sewed together with the sinews of rein-deer or whales, split so thin and small, that they are adapted to the finest steel needles, and with these they execute their work with surprising neatness and ingenuity.

The skins of fowls with the feathers inwards, are made into shirts, these, however, are sometimes manufactured of the skins of the rein-deer. Over the shirt is another garment, of very fine-haired rein-deer skins, which are now so scarce in Greenland, that none but the wealthy can appear in them. Seal-skins are substituted in their place, the rough side is turned outwards, and the borders and seams are ornamented with some narrow stripes of red leather and white dog-skin. Seal skins are also manufactured by different methods into drawers, stockings, and shoes; but among the richer sort, woollen stockings, trowsers, and caps, are worn in their stead. When they travel by sea, a great coat, made of a black -smooth seal's hide, rendered water-proof, covers the rest of their dress.

Mothers and nurses put on a garment wide enough in the back to hold the child, which is placed in it quite naked; it is accommodated with no other swaddling clothes or cradle; and it is kept from falling through, by means of a girdle fastened about the mother's waist. Their common dress abounds with filth and vermin, but they keep their holiday garments exceedingly neat.

The Greenland men wear their hair cut short, commonly hanging down from the crown of the head on every side, and squared off at their foreheads; some of them cut it off close, that it may be no impediment to their work; but to a woman this would be a great reproach, and consequently it is never done by females but in cases of the deepest mourning, or when they resolve never to marry. They usually tie their hair in a double ringlet, in such a manner that a long broad roll or tuft, and another smaller one over it, decorate the crown of their head, which they bind with some gay bandage, adorned with glass beads. The same kind of gems they wear in their ears, round their necks and arms, and also at the borders of their clothes and shoes; but if they aim at being very beautiful, they draw a thread blackened with soot between the skins of their cheeks, chin, hands, and feet. This painful operation is frequently performed by the mother on her daughters in their childhood, lest they might otherwise never get husbands. The same custom is likewise much practised by several Indians in North America; and hence the Greenlanders and Esquimaux Indians are supposed to have derived their origin from one common stock.

The methods and implements made use of by the Greenlanders, for procuring their maintenance, are extremely simple, but in their hands, well adapted to the purpose. In former times they made use of bows, two yards in length, for landgame, but these have long since given way to fowling-pieces. For sea-game five sorts of instruments are principally used. 1. The harpoon-dart with a bladder. 2. The great lance, which is about two yards long. 3. The little lance: these three weapons are used in the capture of seals. 4. The missile dart, a foot and a half in length; and 5. The hunting