SINGULAE EFFECTS OF CURRENTS. 453 



with which icebergs are found in the naviga- 

 tion of the Atlantic ; sometimes as low even 

 as 45, and even 40 of latitude. It appears 

 probable, that the recent strange report of the 

 appearance of the great sea-serpent to the asto- 

 nished crew of H.M.S. Daedalus, is explicable^ 

 as has been suggested by Professor Owen, upon 

 the ground of a polar current having borne 

 away a very different creature to the sea-ser- 

 pent a species of sea-lion, which had trusted 

 itself to the treacherous dwelling-place of a 

 floating mass of ice, which melting beneath it 

 on arriving in warmer regions, had left the 

 poor animal to breast the waves of the ocean 

 in a vain search for a resting-place. It was also 

 provokingly manifest that such currents existed 

 to the boat-sledge expedition of Captain Parry 

 to the North Pole ; for it was found that as they 

 advanced' over the fields of ice to . the north- 

 ward, they were actually carried at a quicker 

 rate south by the polar currents which bore 

 upon them the ice over which they travelled. 



Orv the polar current reaching the equato- 

 rial regions in consequence of its possessing 

 a lesser degree of rotatory motion, owing to 

 its place of origin, than the region into which 

 it is now brought, it appears as a current from 

 east to west, upon the principle before ex- 

 plained under the head of the Trade-winds, 



