58 - . Captain Vetch on Icebergs^ 



mighty agent at hand, I could urge nothing further, but re- 

 mained, like the man 



*\ Convinced against his will, 

 Of the same opinion still." 



After my return from a second visit to .Mexico, opinions 

 had wonderfully changed. The great current of water car- 

 rying polishing sand and gravel, was abandoned as unsuitable, 

 and the more ready and simple agency of icebergs was adopted 

 instead ; and I congratulate geologists on this change of opi- 

 nion for many reasons, but most of all, because it is an agency 

 which we can still see at work. 



I had lately the pleasure of hearing a very able paper read 

 at the Geological Society of London, by Mr Murchison, on 

 the deposit of the great boulders of the north of Germany, 

 through the agency of floating ice ; and few will doubt the 

 very happy and satisfactory explanation thus afforded by 

 assigning the effects to that cause. While listening to the 

 reading of the paper, it occurred to me, that at this day there 

 is a regular stream of floating icebergs, which, passing down 

 from Davis' Straits and Hudson's Straits, direct their course 

 along the Bank of Newfoundland until they get into the Gulf 

 stream (a little farther south), where they speedily melt, or 

 fall to pieces, and drop their earthy and rocky appendages, 

 and that, were the course of these icebergs ever to become 

 dry land, we should find a collection of rocks, boulders, gra- 

 vel, and sand, dropped by them, similar to what Mr Murchi- 

 son has described in Russia and Germany. 



Of the great constancy of the stream of icebergs which now 

 passes southward along the east margin of the Bank of New- 

 foundland, I give the following facts, as witnessed by myself. 

 I believe these bodies are generally or almost always to be 

 seen in the months of March and April in and about Lat. 42° 

 N. and Long. 50° W. of Greenwich. Whether they are to be 

 seen there at other periods, I am not acquainted. 



Ship Corinthian, Captain Davis, 1824, 10th April. Lat. 

 43° 22' N., Long. 46° W. 



Saw an iceberg to the south. 



11th April. Lat. 42° 20' N., Long. 50° W. 



Saw a large iceberg three leagues to northward. 



