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Cape of Good Hope to Melbourne, and from Melbourne to 

 Cape Horn, scarcely ever venture, except while passing 

 Cape Horn, to go on the polar side of hfty-five degrees." 

 As he justly remarks, "the nursery for the bergs to fill 

 such a field must be an immense one ; such a nursery can- 

 not be ' n the sea, for icebergs require to be fastened firmly 

 to the shore until they attain full size. They, therefore, 

 in their mute way, are loud with evidence in favour of 

 Antarctic shorelines of great extent, of deep bays where 

 they may be formed, and of lofty cliffs whence they may be 

 launched." 



It is remarkable, however, that Maury fails to notice 

 that the evidence of these enormous icebergs is opposed to 

 the theory of an Antarctic continent, or is, at least, by 

 no means in favour of that theory. It might at once be 

 objected, indeed, to the inferences derived by Maury from 

 the Antarctic icebergs, that similar reasoning would show 

 the unknown parts of the Arctic regions to be mainly 

 occupied by land masses. But, apart from this, all that 

 we know of glaciers teaches us to recognise the fact that 

 they are furmed only in regions where vast mountain 

 ranges exist, and where the lower levels are reached by 

 ravines ai d valleys gradually diminishing in slope as they 

 descend. Nnw, wherever this is the contour of the land, 

 we have in the surrounding regions one or other of the 

 three following conditions : — Either (i. ), flat land regions 

 around the base of the mountain ranges ; or (ii.), inland 

 seas upon which the valleys debouch ; or (iii., and lastly), 

 open sea, in which the mountain ranges form islands or 



pinnacles complicated in figure. It is clear that only'^the 

 third of these formations corresponds to the conditions 

 indicated by the Antarctic icebergs. There must be a 

 communication between Antarctic seas and the mountain- 

 slopes of Antarctic lands, and this ccmmunicaticn must be 

 by long and deep vallejs, descendirg to fiords, baje, and 

 sulfs. It is thus as certain as such a matter can be until 



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the eye of man has actually rested on these regions, that 

 the Antarctic shore."; are extremely irregular ; and it setms 

 altogether more probable that the land-masses of Antarctic 

 regions consist of a number of large islands like those in 

 the seas to the north of America, than that there is a 

 great continental region, broken along its border, like the 

 Scandinavian peninsula, into bays and fiords. 



But, strangely enough. Captain Maury actually recog- 

 nises the necessity for a suitable region within which the 

 icebergs are to be formed, but seems to feel bound (by the 

 opinion of geographers respecting the unknown Antarctic 

 regions) to reconcile the existence of such a region with 

 the theory of a great Antarctic continent. "Fiords, deep 

 bays, and capacious gulfs loom up," he tells us, " before 

 the imagination, reminding us to sa^k the question, Is there 

 not embosomed in the Antarctic continent a Mediterranear , 

 the shores of which are favourable to the growth and tht; 

 launching of icebergs of tremendous size? and is not tie 

 entrance to this sea near the meridian of Cape Horn, 

 perhaps to the west of it ?" But the condition of the Ant- 

 arctic seas will not permit us to adopt such a view of the 

 origin of southern icebergs. Even if the imagined Antarctic 



