FLOATING ICEBERGS. 317 



terrific, then, would bo the effect of a severe shock 

 (and such occur here*) on a body like a glacier, 

 already in motion, and traversed by fissures ! I 

 can readily believe that the water would be fairly 

 beaten back out of the deepest channel, and then 

 returning with an overwhelming force, would whirl 

 about huge masses of rock like so much chaff". In 

 Eyre's Sound, in the latitude of Paris, there are 

 immense glaciers, and yet the loftiest neighbouring 

 mountain is only 6200 feet high. In this sound, 

 about fifty icebergs were seen at one time floating 

 outwards, and one of them must have been at least 

 1G8 feet in total height. Some of the icebergs 

 were loaded with blocks, of no inconsiderable size, 

 of granite and other rocks, diff"erent from the clay- 

 slate of the suiioundmg moimtain^. The glacier 



46° 40'. 



* Bulkeley's and Cuminins's Faithful Narrative of the Loss of 

 the Wager. The earthquake happened August 25, 1741, 

 D D 2 



