Note 42 — INTRODUCTION

Thus Solinus (pp. xxxiv, xxxvii, 236) says “the sea-ice on this island ignites itself on collision, and when it is ignited it burns like wood.” See Nansen, In Northern Mists, I, 193. Adam von Bremen (Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum, iv, 34) writes: “they report this remarkable thing about it that this ice appears so black and dry that, on account of its age, it burns when it is kindled.” Ibid. The same belief appears in a German poem Meregarto: “Thereby the ice there becomes so hard as crystal, that they make a fire above it till the crystal glows.” Ibid., I, 181.