432 Prohahle influence of 



South Georgia, according to Mr. Fernald, the depth of snow 

 from a single fall in winter is often over five feet. 



Intelligent observers, as, for instance, the commander of 

 the French Exploring Expedition, have found it difficult to 

 account for the formation of the glacial ice, as no marks of 

 stratification from the annual deposit were seen by him in the 

 southern glaciers. But this appearance, as is shown by the 

 observers of the Swiss glaciers, is replaced by a new struc- 

 ture which the glacial ice assumes in the course of its forma- 

 tion. This is a vertically-veined and ribboned structure of 

 blue and white ice, resulting from an alternation of more or 

 less compact bands of ice, their breadth varying from a small 

 fraction of an inch to several inches. 



The imbedding of bowlders and fragments of rock is a 

 well-known phenomenon of the Swiss glaciers. De ]\Iartens, 

 in his memoir upon the glaciers of Spitzbergen, says that 

 blocks of rock exist at the surface and in the interior of the 

 glaciers or fixed icebergs of that island. Mr. Fernald ob- 

 serves that, while at South Georgia, he visited an iceberg in 

 a valley several hundred acres in extent. It was mostly cov- 

 ered with small stones, that appeared to have been washed 

 down from the tops and sides of the mountains. This ice- 

 berg was nearly level, and about fifty feet above the surface 

 of the sea. It was full of chasms, running in all directions, 

 some thirty or forty feet deep. He remarked, at the time, 

 that one of them was large enough to drive a cart through. 

 The water was pouring down the mountain-sides, at the head 

 of the iceberg, into the chasms, in streams large enough to 

 turn a cotton-mill. This was in midsummer. He afterwards 

 visited this glacier in winter ; every chasm was filled up, and 

 the whole iceberg had a new face. 



Captain William Pendleton, of Stonington, remarked to 

 me, before I called his attention to the subject, that there was 

 something very singular about the ice of the South Shetlands. 

 This was, that there would be often seen large rocks and 

 pieces of stone projecting from the clifT of ice which formed 

 the shores, some of them of many tons weight. These rocks 



