Scientific Intelligence — Meteorology. 389 



Valais, to about 2500 feet above the existing surface of the Lake of 

 Geneva ; while the highest band of detritus on the Jura was stated 

 to rise to a still higher level. It was inconceivable, therefore, that 

 such detritus should have been lodged at its present elevation by 

 former glaciers. The only way in which it appeared possible to ob- 

 viate the mechanical difficulties of tho subject, was to suppose the 

 transport to have been effected when the Jura was at a lower level 

 relatively to the Alps, and the whole district lower relatively to tho 

 surface of tho ocean. In such case, the space between tho Alps and 

 the Jura may have been occupied by the sea, and the ice, with its 

 transported materials, may have passed from the former to the latter 

 chain, partly with the character of a glacier, and partly with that of 

 an iceberg. This hypothesis is perfectly consistent with the suppo- 

 sition of tho goi.eral configuration of the surface of the Jura having 

 been tho same at the epoch of the transport as at tho present time ; 

 and Mr Hopkins believed it would bo found equally so with all tho 

 observed phenomena of that region. — Athenceum, No. 827, p. 803. 



4. On the Agency of Glaciers in Transporting Rocks. — Colonel 

 Sabine, at tho Cork Meeting, related, in illustration of the agency 

 of glaciers in transporting rocks, that when the Antarctic Expedition 

 had reached 79 degrees S. latitude, the vessels were stopped by a bar- 

 rier of ice, from 100 to 180 feet in height, and 300 miles from cast 

 to west ; beyond these cliffs they discovered a range of lofty moun- 

 tains, 60 miles from the sea, the westernmost of which appeared to bo 

 12,000 feet in height. From the face of these ice-cliffs vast masses 

 were constantly breaking off, and floating northward, bearing with 

 them fraorments of the rocks which had been derived from the moun- 

 tains. In the latitude of 66 and 67 degrees, a distance of 700 miles 

 from the glaciers, these floating icebergs appeared to bo usually 

 arrested, so as to form a floating barrier, at which ships were often 

 stopped ; and it had been observed, that, between this zone and the 

 cliffs, the sea deepened considerably. Over all this area tho icebergs 

 would bo constantly strewing masses of rock and detritus, particu- 

 larly at their northern limit, where they would probably form mounds 

 resemblino- terminal glacial moraines. Colonel Sabine then describ- 

 ed similar phenomena in Bafhn's Bay, which he stated to be, in most 

 parts, deeper than the thousand-fathom line, but shallow at the strait 

 which forms its entrance. Tho bay was surrounded by alternate 

 cliffs of rock and valleys occupied by glaciers, and presented cliffs 

 of ice along the shore, from which masses became detached and float- 

 ed off to the zone of shallow water at the entrance of the bay, where 



