TIDE-RIPS AND SEA DRIFT. 395 



762. The weedy space, marked as such, about the Falkland 

 sea-weed about the Islands, is probably not a true sargasso. The sea- 

 Faikiand Islands, weed reported there probably comes from the Straits 

 of Magellan, where immense masses of it grow. These straits are 

 so encumbered with sea-weed that steamers find great difficulty 

 in making their way through it. It so encumbers their paddles 

 as to make frequent stoppages necessary. 



763. The sargasso to the west of the Cape of Good Hope, 

 The African sargasso, though Small, is perhaps the best defined of them 

 all. Mention is generally made of it in the logs as "rock- 

 weed" and "drift matter." Now when it is recollected that 

 weeds have been found as frequently, nearly (§ 760), in this 

 small space as they have been in the large space between the 

 Cape and Australia, the reader will be able to form a more 

 correct idea as to the relative abundance of weed in these seas 

 of weed. 



764. By going far enough south, icebergs maybe found on any 

 Icebergs. meridian ; but in searching for them, we can only 



look where commerce carries our colleagues of the sea. Out of 

 the ISJjS tracks traced on the polar side of 35° S., only 10.9 make 

 mention of ice. Few of these went, except in doubling Cape 

 Horn, beyond the parallel of ^o° S., therefore we have not been 

 able to track the ice back into the " chambers of the frost." 

 We can only say that north of 50^ antarctic icebergs most 

 abound between the meridians of io^ W. and 55° E. 



765. As a rule, the bergs which are the largest last longest, 

 The largest drift and approach nearest to the equator. Here, then, 

 farthest. -g ^jj^ great line of antarctic drift ; by studying it 

 we may perhaps catch a glimmer of light from south polar shores. 

 These icebergs, be it remembered, have drifted north through a 

 belt of we>terly winds. Their course, therefore, was probably 

 not due north, but to the east of that rhomb. 



766. Tracing this line of drift, then, backward in a soulh- 

 The line of antarctic Westerly direction, it should guide us to that ]:)art 

 *^"''- of the southern continent where the icebergs have 

 their principal nursery. This would take us to the sources of 

 the Humboldt current, and seem to indicate that these glaciers 

 are launched in its waters; but, as their motion is slow, the 

 winds bear the bergs to the east, while the general drift sets them 

 to the north. 



767. Arrived at this point, fiords, deep bays, and capacious 



