Association of American Geologists and Naturalists. 157 
but on one side, a large earthy colored ‘patch was seen, having numerous 
blacker spots, which Mr. C. had no doubt were bowlders, scattered over 
it. Some of these presented a surface of two or three hundred square 
eet. 
In 1831, on a passage from Boston to Mobile, at daylight of 17th Au- 
gust, in latitude 36° 20 north, longitude 67° 45/ west, upon the southern 
edge of the Gulf Stream, Mr. C. fell in with several small bergs in 
such proximity to'each other, as to leave little doubt of their being frag- 
ments of a large one, which weakened by the high temperature of the 
surrounding water, had fallen asunder during a strong gale which for 
several days previous had prevailed from the southeast. The natural 
tendency of this would be to force the berg into the warm northeast 
current of the stream, where, already much worn by its prior sojourn 
there while crossing from the north, its separation soon took place. 
The strong northwest wind immediately following the southeast gale, 
probably drove the fragments out of the Gulf again, to where they were 
seen in the eddy current, which Mr. C. found to set in that place south- 
west; at the rate of half a mile per hour. And here, said he, a sugges- 
tion of much geological interest presented itself to his mind. Supposing 
an iceberg of the present day to break loose from the northern polar 
regions, loaded with blocks of stone and gravel, and drifting southward, 
to strand upon the Banks of- Newfoundland, or George’s bank near 
- Our own ‘shores, and there remain fora considerable period grind- 
ing themselves upon the ocean’s bed, thereby incorporating into their 
mass, portions of it, such as shells, gravel, sand, clay or stones. _ 
to the unequal action of the weather upon its surface, and water on ite 
submerged portion, it might etumious ‘shown, turn partially or even 
ntir ed matter above water, and 
vial, 
it might float off and resume its southerly course, till accidentally forced 
into the Gulf Stream oan sare castwart at the rate of 24’ a day, (the 
mean velocity of the St a till it was melted 
away. To affect this dissolution would require three or four months, 
during which time, the berg would be carried six or seven hundred 
miles in a direction nearly at right angles with its primary drift, depos- 
iting a greater or less quantity of transported material along its entire 
track. Mr. Couthouy remarked that the instance just cited, was one of 
peculiar interest, from its illustrating the manner in which rocky maté- 
rials imbedded in icebergs, may through the devious course of these 
, be deposited along a wide range of longinde a as well as latitude. 
the 
Te: 
4i0 
Gulf Stream, and about 1 jatoenseuid uhdet! sue hy alla, woe 0b 
