132 SEA AND LAND 



strcncTth of the Gulf Stream flow becomes aiunnented. In 

 this way it comes about, that in the hititude of the Xew- 

 foundland banks, or shoals, the floating- masses attain a posi- 

 tion where there is a balance between the effects of the 

 diverse currents, and, as a result of this, the icebergs lie idly 

 in the sea or drift about in the varying winds until they 

 melt away. 



The bergs from the North Atlantic nursery of ice, from 

 the glaciers of southern and western Greenland, have their 

 limit of migration set by this curious equation of the currents 

 which prevail in these waters. If the southward-setting cur- 

 rent were as strong in that region as it is on the west coast 

 of North America, there is no reason why these vast and 

 slow-moving ice-islands should not attain to near the tropics; 

 as it is, they are rarely if ever found much south of the New- 

 foundland banks. There are reports that in certain rare 

 instances considerable bergs have been seen nearly as far 

 west as the mouth of the Bay of Fundy and as far south and 

 east as the Azores, but these stories lack verification and may 

 be only sailors' yarns ; if true, it is probably to be explained 

 Ijy the fact that in a period of long-continued and strong 

 northwesterly winds deep bergs, which on account of their 

 depth projected high above the water, were urged far to the 

 southward and eastward of their normal course. Allowing 

 for such rare accidents, the fact remains that the icebergs of 

 the North Atlantic have their southward and eastward exten- 

 sion determined with admirable accuracy, and in a way to 

 show the observer how beautifully the physical conditions are 

 adjusted in the waters of that tumultuous sea. 



The fact that icebergs can maintain themselves so long- 

 when they are floating with their upper parts bathed in the 



