Icebergs upon Drift. 437 



polar regions as in those of the Alps, they must be constantly 

 advancing into the sea, as the glaciers of the Alps do along 

 the valleys. It is well known that, on the Alps, these pro- 

 longations of the winter-world above are protruded into the 

 midst of warm and pine-clad slopes and green sward, and 

 sometimes reach even the borders of cultivation. As Prof. 

 Forbes says, the very huts of the peasantry are sometimes 

 invaded by this moving ice ; and many persons now living 

 have seen the full ears of corn touching the glacier, or gath- 

 ered ripe cherries from the tree with one foot standing on 

 the ice. 



The deep seas, which are always found near such moun- 

 tainous coasts, readily float away those masses which become 

 detached. No one whom 1 have particularly examined has 

 ever witnessed the actual separation of those vast islands 

 which are found floating, and of which 1 shall hereafter speak. 

 But, from the accounts of all those who have visited the 

 southern glaciers, immense masses are constantly falling from 

 the ice-cliffs, which are floated away by the sea. Captain Benja- 

 min Pendleton informs me that he has seen the ice fall from a 

 cliff" for the length of half a mile. The noise made by the 

 bursting of the glacier and fall of ice is compared to thunder. 

 When the sealers first visited the South Shetlands, they sup- 

 posed the noise made by the bursting of the iceberg was oc- 

 casioned by shocks of an earthcuake. The harbors and bays 

 in which the sealers lie are often filled in this manner by the 

 fall of ice. Mr. Curtis, of Portsmouth, who was with Mr. 

 Fernald in South Georgia, stated to me, that on one occasion 

 they put into Merry's Bay, on South Georgia. The sea and 

 the harbor, when they put in, was entirely free from ice. The 

 next morning, the bay was so filled with ice that fell during 

 the night that they could not get out to sea. They went upon 

 the hills at the head of the bay, and, although the weather 

 was clear, could see ice as far as the eye could reach. 



It is a fact, wjiich should be remembered in connection 

 with the object of our inquiries, that the greater portion of 

 the ice falling from the glacier, consists of comparatively small 



