Buffon's Natural History, Volume 01 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Mineral, &c. &cBuffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
History
Buffon's Natural History, Volume 01 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Mineral, &c. &c
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
Natural history
All this ice, as I have observed in the sixth article, was brought
thither by the rivers; the ice in the sea of Nova Zembla, and the
Straits of Waigat come from the Oby, and perhaps from Jenisca, and other
great rivers of Siberia and Tartary; that in Hudson's Straits, from
Ascension Bay, into which many of the North American rivers fall; that
of Terra del Fuega, from the southern continent. If there are less on
the North coasts of Lapland, than on those of Siberia, and the Straits
of Waigat, it is because all the rivers of Lapland fall into the Gulph
of Bothnia, and none go into the northern sea. The ice may also be
formed in the straits, where the tides swell much higher than in the
open sea, and where, consequently, the ice that is at the surface may
heap up and form those mountains, which are several fathoms high; but
with respect to those which are 4 or 500 feet high, they appear to be
formed on high coasts; and I imagine that when the snow which covers the
tops of these coasts melts, the water flows on the flakes of ice, and
being frozen thereon, thus increases the size of the first until it
comes to that amazing height. That afterwards, in a warm summer, these
hills of ice loosen from the coasts by the action of the wind and motion
of the sea, or perhaps even by their own weight, and are driven as the
wind directs, so that they at length may arrive into temperate climates
before they are entirely melted.
FOOTNOTES:
[306:A] See Racolta d'autori che trattano del motto dell' acque, vol. 1,
page 123.
[312:A] See Keil's Examination of Burnet's Theory, page 126.
[313:A] See Shaw's Travels, vol. ii, page 71.
[317:A] See Boyle, vol. iii. page 217.
[321:A] See Ovington's Travels, vol. ii. page 290.
[323:A] See Phil. Trans. Abr. vol. vi. part ii. page 119.
[325:A] Phil. Trans. vol. vi. part ii. page 19.
[326:A] See Varenii Geograph. gen. page 48.
[329:A] In contradiction to this idea it is now a generally received
opinion, that the mountains of ice in the North and South Seas are
exactly the same depth under as they are height above the surface of the
water.
[330:A] See the Voyages of Lade, vol. ii, page 305, &.
[332:A] Voyage of the Dutch to the North, vol. 1, 3. Page 49.
_END OF THE FIRST VOLUME._
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the
original.
The following changes have been made to the original text:
Page vi: It would have been singular[original has "singuar"]
Page 9: moon, which are the causes of["of" missing in
original] it
Page 23: these particles[original has "particels"] of earth
and stone
Page 31: In a word, the materials[original has "mateterials"]
of the globe
Page 37: has occurred, and in my opinion[original has
"oppinion"] very naturally
Page 51: These[original has "these"] could not have been
occasioned
Page 74: in the regions of the sky [original has "fky"]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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