On the Glaciers and Climate of Iceland. 287 



in a south-westerly direction from Spitzbergen towards Jan 

 May en and Iceland. In our opinion, it is thus that the drift- 

 wood and tropical seeds are carried to the north-east coasts 

 of Iceland. From the observations of the inhabitants of Rau- 

 farhavn, it appears that the drift-wood, at least, comes fi'om 

 the ocean, in the direction of the last-mentioned current, that 

 current, namely, which flows from Spitzbergen. In accord- 

 ance with this, Irminger, in the summer of 1834, found at the 

 mouth of the Blanda, in the north of the island, the wreck of 

 a Greenland trading-vessel of Gluckkstadt, which had been 

 abandoned by its crew between Spitzbergen and Jan Mayen. 

 The drift-ice which almost annually surrounds the north 

 and east coasts of Iceland during a portion of the year, and 

 which does not usually disappear before July, but sometimes 

 even remains till August, is bi'ought thither by the northern 

 current which has just been mentioned ; whilst, at the same 

 time, the coast on the south and west, washed by the Gulf 

 Stream, is free from ice, and enjoys a milder climate. Ice- 

 landic trading-vessels which, on their way to Akureyre, have 

 been interrupted in their passage on the east side of the 

 island by drift-ice, have sometimes changed their course and 

 gone round the Cape Reykjanes ; and thus, coming from 

 the west, have reached their destination without further im- 

 pediments. 



The current directed from the north-east towards Iceland, 

 aflPords a satisfactory explanation of a phenomenon which has 

 as yet received but little attention ; the occurrence, namely, 

 of boulders composed of rocks different from those forming 

 the solid mass of the island. These blocks and rolled stones, 

 derived from primitive rocks, first attracted rny attention on 

 the strand of Halbjarnastader-Kambur, between Husavik and 

 Tiornes. At that place there are, not unfrequently, to be 

 found pieces of a gx*ey granite, with rose-coloured garnets, 

 and fragments of mica-slate, and there is a block of stone of 

 the character of serpentine, of which the diameter is about 

 two metres in every direction. These boulders lie at the level 

 of the sea, in a locality quite inaccessible to foreign ships ; so 

 that even the smaller pieces cannot be supposed to have been 

 brought as ballast from Scandinavia ; and, as to the larger 



