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From the Philosophical Magazine for July 1874.
ON
SOME PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF ICE;
ON
THE TRANSPOSITION OF BOULDERS FROM
BELOW TO ABOVE THE ICE;
AND ON
MAMMOTH-REMAINS.
BY
JOHN RAE, M.D., LL.D., etc*
S the ice formed on salt water fresh ? or, in other words, if
ice formed on the sea is thawed, will the water obtained
thereby be fresh ?
For a number of years past I have spoken with many persons
on the above subject; and seldom, if ever, have I found a single
individual who did not say that the ice of the sea was fresh.
Some of these gentlemen are known in the scientific world;
and many of them supported their opinions by quoting the
highest written authorities on the subject, chiefly Tyndall's
‘Forms of Water/ p. 132, par. 339, which tells us that “even
when water is saturated with salt, the crystallizing force studi
ously rejects the salt, and devotes itself to the congelation of
the water alone. Hence the ice of sea-water, when melted, pro
duces fresh water”
It is the sentence in italics to which I wish to draw particular
attention.
It would be the extreme of folly and presumption on my
part to question the correctness of results obtained by scientific
men in their experiments in freezing small quantities of sea
water by artificial means, more especially those of the distin
guished gentleman whose name I have mentioned, who, in
addition to holding the high position of being one of our
I
* Read before the Physical Society, May 9, 1874.
�2
Dr. J. Rae on some Physical Properties of Ice.
greatest authorities in all that relates to physical science, pos
sesses the rare gift of being able to communicate his knowledge
in such plain, clear, and forcible language, illustrated by admi
rable experiments, as to make his meaning fully understood,
even by those who had previously been perfectly ignorant of
the subject.
It is only where I have had opportunities of witnessing the
action of cold carried on in a manner which may have been
denied to the scientific man, that I venture to differ from him;
and it is in this way that the conviction has been forced upon
me, that the ice of sea-water if melted does not produce fresh
water.
Before entering upon this subject, however, let me say a word
or two on the first part of the quotation I have given.
If a saturated solution of salt is frozen, and the ice so formed
is fresh, it is evident that the salt that has been “ rejected ”
must be deposited or precipitated in a crystalline or some other
solid form, because the water, if any, that remains unfrozen,
being already saturated, can hold in solution no more salt than
it already contains.
Could not salt be obtained readily and cheaply by this means
from sea-water in cold climates ?
During several long journeys on the Arctic coast, in the early
spring before any thaw had taken place, the only water to be
obtained was by melting snow or ice. By experience I found
that a kettleful of water could be obtained by thawing ice with
a much less expenditure of fuel, and in a shorter time, than
was required to obtain a similar quantity of water by thawing
snow. Now, as we had to carry our fuel with us, this saving of
fuel and of time was an important consideration, and we always
endeavoured to get ice for this purpose. We had another in
ducement to test the sea-ice frequently as to its freshness or
the reverse.
I, presume that almost every one knows that to eat snow
when it is very cold, tends to increase thirst, whereas a piece of
ice in the mouth is refreshing and beneficial,, however cold it
may be; we were consequently always glad to get a bit of fresh
ice whilst at the laborious work of hauling our heavy sledges ;
yet with these strong inducements we were never able to find
sea-ice, in situ either eatable when solid or drinkable when
,
*
thawed, it being invariably much too salt. The only exception
(if it may be called one) to this rule, was when we found rough
ice, which, from its wasted appearance and irregular form, had
evidently been the formation of a previous winter. This old
* What I mean by ice in situ is ice lying flat and unbroken on the
sea, as formed during the winter it is formed in.
�On the Transposition of Boulders from below to above the Ice. 3
ice, if projecting a foot or two above the water-level, was almost
invariably fresh, and, when thawed, gave excellent drinkingwater. It may be said that these pieces of fresh ice were frag
ments of glaciers or icebergs; but this could not be so, as they
were found where neither glaciers nor icebergs are ever seen.
How is this to be accounted for? Unfortunately I have only
a theory to offer in explanation.
When the sea freezes by the abstraction of heat from its
surface, I do not think that the saline matter, although retained
in and incorporated with the ice, assumes the solid state, unless
the cold is very intense, but that it remains fluid in the form of
a very strong brine enclosed in very minute cells. So long as
the ice continues to float at the same level, or nearly the same
level, as the sea, this brine remains; but when the ice is raised
a little above the water-level, the brine, by its greater specific
gravity, and probably by some solvent quality acting on the ice,
gradually drains off from the ice so raised; and the small cells,
by connecting one with another downwards, become channels of
drainage.
There may be several other requisites for this change of salt
ice into fresh, such as temperature raised to the freezing-point,
so as to enable the brine to work out the cell-walls into channels
or tubes—-that is, if my theory has any foundation in fact, which
may be easily tested by any expedition passing one or more
winters on the Arctic, or by any one living where ice of con
siderable thickness is formed on the sea, such as some parts of
Norway.
All that is required, as soon as the winter has advanced far
enough for the purpose, is to cut out a block of sea-ice (taking
care not to be near the outflow of any fresh-water stream) about
3 feet square, remove it from the sea to some convenient posi
tion, test its saltness at the time, and at intervals repeat the
testing both on its upper and lower surfaces, and observe the
drainage if any.
The result of the above experiment, even if continued for a
long while, may not be satisfactory, because the fresh ice that I
have described must have been formed at least twelve months,
perhaps eighteen months, before.
The Transposition of Boulders from below to above the Ice.
When boulders, small stones, sand, gravel, &c. are found
lying on sea-ice, it is very generally supposed that they must
have rolled down a steep place or fallen from a cliff, or been
deposited by a flow of water from a river or other source.
There is, however, another way in which boulders &c. get upon
�4' On the Transposition of Boulders from below to above the Ice.
floe-ice, which I have not seen mentioned in any book on this
subject.
During the spring of 1847, at Repulse Bay on the Arctic
shores of America, I was surprised, to observe, after the thaw
commenced, that large boulders (some of them 3 or 4 feet in
diameter) began to appear on the surface of the ice; and after a
while, about the month of July, they were wholly exposed,
whilst the ice below them was strong, firm, and something like
4 feet thick.
There were no cliffs or steep banks near from which these
boulders could have come; and the only way in which I could
account for their appearance, was that which by subsequent
observation I found to be correct.
On the shores of Repulse Bay the rise and fall of the tide
are 6 or 8 feet, sometimes more. When the ice is forming in
early winter, it rests, when the tide is out, on any boulders &c.
that may be at or near low-water mark. At first, whilst the
ice is weak, the boulders break through it; but when the ice
becomes (say 2 or 3 feet) thick, it freezes firmly to the boulder,
and when the tide rises, is strong enough to lift the boulder
with it. Thus, once fastened to the ice, the stone continues
to rise and fall with the rise and fall of each tide, until, as the
winter advances, it becomes completely enclosed in the ice,
which by measurement I found to attain a thickness of more
than 8 feet.
Small stones, gravel, sand, and shells may be fixed in the
ice in the same way.
In the spring, by the double effect of thaw and evaporation,
the upper surface of the ice, to the extent of 3 feet or more, is
removed, and thus the boulders, which in autumn were lying
at the bottom of the sea, are now on the ice, while it is still
strong and thick enough to travel with its load, before favour
able winds and currents to a great distance.
The finding small stones and gravel on ice out to sea does not
always prove that such ice has been near the shore at some time
or other.
1 have noticed that wherever the Walrus in any numbers
have been for some time lying either on ice or rocks, a not
inconsiderable quantity of gravel has been deposited, apparentlv
a portion of the excreta of that animal, having probably been
taken up from the bottom of the sea and swallowed along with
their food.
�Dr. J. Rae on Mammoth-remains.
J/awwnoM-remcwis.
5
The position in which their Skeletons are
found, fyc.
Tn LyelFs f Principles of Geology/ vol. i. p. 185, we read
“In the flat country near the mouth of the Yenesei river,
Siberia, between latitudes 70° and 75° north, many skeletons of
mammoths, retaining the hair and skin, have been found. The
heads of most of these are said to have been turned to the south.”
As far as I can find, the distinguished geologist gives no
reason why the heads of the mammoths were turned to the
south; nor does he say all that I think might be said of the
reasons why, and the means by which the skins have been pre
served for such a long period of time.
Having lived some years on the banks of two of the great
rivers of America, near to where they enter Hudson’s Bay, and
also on the M'Kenzie, which flows into the Arctic Sea, I have
bad opportunities of observing what takes place on these streams,
all of which have large alluvial deposits, forming flats and shal
lows at their mouths.
What I know to be of common occurrence in these rivers
may, if we reason by analogy, have taken place in ancient times
on the great rivers of Siberia, making due allowance for the
much higher northern latitude to which these streams run before
reaching the sea, and for the difference in size of the fauna that
used to frequent their banks.
When animals, more especially those having horns, tusks, or
otherwise heavily weighted heads, are drifting down a river,
the position of the bodies may lie in any direction as regards
the course of the stream, as long as they are in water deep
enough to float them; but the moment they get into a shallow
place, the head, which sinks deepest (or, as sailors say, “ draws
most water ”), takes the ground, whilst the body, still remaining
afloat, swings to the current, just as a boat or ship does when
brought to anchor in a tideway.
It is probable that the mammoths, having been drowned by
breaking through the ice or in swimming across the river in
spring when the banks were lined with high precipitous drifts
of snow, which prevented them from getting out of the water,
or killed in some other way, floated down stream, perhaps for
hundreds of miles, until they reached the shallows at the mouth,
where the heads, loaded with a great weight of bone and tusks,
would get aground in 3 or 4 feet of water, whilst the bodies
still afloat would swing round with the current as already
described.
�6
Dr. J. Ray on Mammoth-remains.
The Yenesei flows from south to north, so the heads, being
pointed up stream, would be to the south
.
*
Supposing, then, these bodies anchored as above in 3 or 4 feet
water; as soon as the winter set in, they would be frozen up in
this position. The ice in so high a latitude as 70c or 75° north
would acquire a thickness of 5 or 6 feet at least, so that it would
freeze to the bottom on the shallows where the mammoths were
anchored. In the spring, on the breaking up of the ice, this
ice being solidly frozen to the muddy bottom, would not rise to
the surface, but remain fixed, with its contained animal remains,
and the flooded stream would rush over both, leaving a covering
of mud as the water subsided.
Part of this fixed ice, but not the whole, might be thawed
away during summer; and (possibly, but not necessarily) next
winter a fresh layer of ice with a fresh supply of animal re
mains might be formed over the former stratum; and so the
peculiar position and perfect state of preservation of this im
mense collection of extinct animals may be accounted for without
having recourse to the somewhat improbable theory that a very
great and sudden change had taken place in the climate of that
region.
I have seen at the mouth of Hayes River in America animals
frozen up as above described; but as the latitude of this place is
only 57° north, the fixed ice usually wholly disappears before
the next winter sets in, and liberates the animals shut up in it;
but when the rivers reach the sea, as some of those of Siberia
do, 1000 or 1200 miles further to the north, it may be fairly
assumed that a large part of this fixed ice, protected as i would
be by a layer of mud, might continue unthawed.
* Not many years ago, when buffalo were very abundant on the Saskat
chewan, hundreds of them were sometimes drowned in one season whilst
swimming across the river; and many reindeer, moose, and other animals
are annually destroyed in this way in other large American rivers.
Sir Charles Lyell mentions a number of yaks being seen frozen up in
one of the Siberian rivers, which, on the breaking up of the ice in spring,
would be liberated and float down the stream.
�
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On some physical properties of ice; on the transportation of boulders from below to above the ice and on mammoth-remains
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Collation: 6 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Read before the Physical Society, May 9, 1874. Reprinted from Philosophical Magazine, July 1874. Also published in Proceedings of the Physical Society of London, v1 n1 (21 March 1874): 14-20.
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