-blocks tumble on each other with a crashing noise and din,
and from which true icebergs of giant-like dimensions are projected
in hundreds and thousands; _broad; slowly-advancing glaciers_, which
terminate towards the sea with an even perpendicular face, from
which now and then considerable ice-blocks, but no true icebergs,
fall down; and _smaller stationary glaciers_, which advance so slowly
that the ice in the brim melts away about as fast as the whole mass
of ice glides forward, and which thus terminate at the beach not
with a perpendicular face but with a long ice-slope covered with
clay, sand, and gravel.

The inland-ice on Novaya Zemlya is of too inconsiderable extent to
allow of any large icebergs being formed. There are none such
accordingly in the Kara Sea[89], and it is seldom that even a large
glacier ice-block is to be met with drifting about.

The name ice-house, conferred on the Kara Sea by a famous Russian
man of science, did not originate from the large number of
icebergs[90], but from the fact that the covering of ice, which
during winter, on account of the severity of the cold and the slight
salinity of the surface-water, is immensely thick, cannot, though
early broken up, be carried away by the marine currents and be
scattered over a sea that is open even during winter[91]. Most of
the ice formed during winter in the Kara Sea, and perhaps some of
that which is drifted down from the Polar basin, is on the contrary
heaped by the marine currents against the east coast of Novaya
Zemlya, where during early summer it blocks the three sounds which
unite the Kara Sea with the Atlantic. It was these ice-conditions
which caused the failure of all the older north-east voyages and
gave to the Kara Sea its bad report and name of ice-house. Now we
know that it is not so dangerous in this respect as it was formerly
believed to be--that the ice of the Kara Sea melts away for the
most part, and that during autumn this sea is quite available for
navigation.

In general our knowledge of the Kara Sea some decades back was not
only incomplete, but also erroneous. It was believed that its animal
life was exceedingly scanty, and that algae were absolutely wanting;
no soundings had been taken elsewhere than close to the coast; and
much doubt was thrown, not without reason, on the correctness of the
maps. Now all this is changed to a great extent. The coast line,
bordering on the sea, is settled on the maps; the ice-cond