The length of the summer is from the latter end of May to the midst of September; all the remaining part of the year is winter, which is tolerable in the latitude of 64°, but to the Northward, in 68° and above, the cold is so excessive, that even the most spirituous liquors, as French brandy, will freeze near the fire side. At the end of August the sea is all covered with ice, which does not thaw before April or May, and sometimes not till the latter end of June.
It is remarkable, that on the Western coasts of different countries, lying in one and the same latitude, it is much colder than on the Eastern, as some parts of Greenland and Norway. And though Greenland is much colder than Norway, yet the snow never lies so high, especially in the bays and inlets, where it is seldom above half a yard higher than the ground; whereas the inland parts and the mountains are perpetually covered with ice and snow, which never melts; and not a spot of the ground is bare, but near the shore and in the bays; where in the summer you are delighted with a charming verdure, caused by the heat of the sun, reverberated from side to side, and concentred in these lower parts of the valleys, surrounded by high rocks and mountains, for many hours together without intermission; but as soon as the sun is set, the air is changed at once, and the cold ice mountains make you soon feel the nearness of their neighbourhood, and oblige you to put on your furs. Besides the frightful ice that covers the whole face of the land, the sea is almost choaked with it, some flat and large fields of ice, or bay ice, as they call it, and some huge and prodigious mountains, of an astonishing bigness, lying as deep under water as they soar high in the air. These are pieces of the ice mountains of the land, which lie near the sea, and bursting, tumble down into the sea, and are carried off. They represent to the beholders, afar off, many odd and strange figures; some of churches, castles with spires and turrets others you would take to be ships under sail; and many have been deluded by them, thinking they were real ships, and going to board them. Nor does their figure and shape alone surprise, but also their diversity of colours pleases the sight; for some are like white crystal, others blue as sapphires; and others again green as emeralds. One would attribute the cause of these colours to metals or minerals of the places where this ice was formed; or of waters of which it was coagulated: but experience teaches me, that the blue ice is the concretion of fresh water, which at first is white, and at length hardens and turns blue; but the greenish colour comes from salt water. It is observed, that if you put the blue ice near the fire and let it melt, and afterwards remove it to a colder place, to freeze again, it does not recover its former blue, but becomes white. From whence I infer, that the volatile sulphur, which the ice had attracted from the air, by its resolution into water, exhales and vanishes.