1846.] Icebergs- of the Jnt- Arctic Sea. 23 



the land by a series of precipitous cliffs, which have an extent 

 for miles together, presenting a naked wall or barrier of ice to 

 the sea. Huge masses of these, particularly during the season of 

 summer, are continually breaking off with an astounding report, 

 and after falling into the waves beneath are carried onward, and 

 constitute the vast icebergs of the Southern ocean. 



These icebergs, when first detached from the land, are of a 

 rudely tabular form, but by the continued action of the oceanic 

 waters about their bases, penetrating into their fissures, and wear- 

 ing them away in such a manner as to destroy their equilibrium, 

 they suddenly topple over, and then exhibit all those strange and 

 imitative forms which have so often been described in most p;1ow- 

 ing terms, by the many voyagers whose good or evil fortunes 

 have hitherto led within their influence. 



Embraced within these drifting icebergs, rocky fragments, va- 

 rying greatly in size, are not unusually to be seen, sometimes 

 rounded into the boulder form, but for the most part angular, and 

 so arranged as to present a dark striped, or partially stratified ap- 

 pearance, strikingly visible from the contrast of their darker 

 hues, with those of the lighter tints of the ice in which they are 

 inclasped. The origin of these last is extremely obvious, and 

 admit of a simple explanation. - In many places, isolated masses 

 of the rock that constitute the land, are observed to penetrate and 

 protrude far above the general level of the surrounding snows; 

 portions of these are almost continually falling, from the expan- 

 sive power of the congealing water among their fissures: these 

 fragments are thrown upon the indurated surface of the snows, 

 and are then slidden to some considerable distance from whence 

 they were derived; upon these the falling snows soon accumulate 

 to a sufficient depth to retain them in their places, until they be- 

 come firmly embraced within the mass. When portions of these 

 glaciers are detached, and tumble into the sea, icebergs bearing 

 rocky fragments are then produced. These fragments, like the 

 animal remains, are frequently borne along, and deposited in re- 

 gions far remote from the parent rock, from whence they were 

 detached. 



