On the Gulf Stream and contiguous currents, 351 
red than frequent observations, and proper attention to the ship’s 
place. It is desirable, therefore, that every ship-master who tra- 
verses this region should make and record his observations hourly 
upon these currents. — 
The drift ice from the polar basin is always found in the western 
portion of the North Atlantic Ocean, notwithstanding the influence 
of violent westerly winds. A writer in the London Nautical Maga- 
zine* supposes that a portion of the polar current which bears the 
ice along the eastern edge of the Grand Bank into the Atlantic, 
there becomes exhausted, or joins the Florida stream. And in the 
Encyclopedia of Geography,f it is stated that the waters in the 
Northern Ocean, in the space comprised between Greenland and 
the coasts of Britain and Norway, and between Labrador and Spitz- 
bergen, are supposed to perform a perpetual circuit ; and that, being 
returned to Newfoundland, they recommence their revolution. 
It is doubtless true that the great stream of ice is brought by the 
Labrador current within the dissolving influence of the Gulf Stream; 
and I may here remark that it is not improbable that the Grand Bank 
owes its origin to the deposits which have resulted from this process 
during a long course of ages.{ But the polar current probably 
* Nautical Magazine for March, 1837, p. 139. In this article it is stated that 
between 42° and 43° west, is the farthest easterly position in which floating masses 
of ice have usually sss fou 
+ Phil. Edition, 1, p. 1 
+ Itis not intended by this remark to express any doubt of the well supported 
eniian of elevation which are maintained by modern geologists. That large 
masses or blocks as well as smaller fragments and masses of earth, are removed 
from the rocky cliffs of the northern regions by the icebergs, and transported by 
these floating masses upon the bosom of the ocean, is a fact which — ly 
been noted by scientific navigators and goes far in support of the above i 
To the writer it app f blocks and honitoes 
northern rocks to more southern positions which is so universally observed in ie 
United States, and in the northern countries of Europe, may with great probability 
be attributed to the Se api effect of ice sans ae: nse polar currents, during 
the long period when these countries otal or partial aoa ala gee 
A block pertaining to the feldspathic formation of the Blue Mountains west of 
Lake Champlain and weighing perhaps fifty tons, is found on the west ‘ide of the 
Hudson at Cintas about one hundred and twenty miles south of the origina] 
position. Smaller fragments of the same rock have also been noticed by Lieut. 
Mather in his geological report as being found in Orange County N. Y., and the 
writer is informed that they are even found in a0 state ‘of New Jersey, near two 
- 
lace o i 
Mr. Lyell has fully recognized this mode of soi) transportation, and show: 
that it is adequate to produce very extensive results. He shows also that ate 
