286 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



condition of the globe, we know of ice-bound and 

 open seas in the northern hemisphere and of the 

 southern ocean abounding in icebergs but probably 

 nowhere ice-bound up to the very coast of the cir- 

 cumpolar Antarctic continent, except in more or 

 less land-locked bays. We can scarcely doubt, 

 from what we actually see, that if that Antarctic 

 continent were not there to receive snow (or hoar 

 frost) to let it be kneaded into ice-sheet and 

 glaciers, and to deliver masses of ice to be broken 

 and washed away from its coasts, there would be 

 neither ice nor icebergs in the southern hemisphere. 

 Frozen seas, and icebergs in open seas, could not 

 exist without land or very shallow water, in polar 

 regions. Suppose sun and seasons, and climate, 

 and distribution of sea and land to be all just as 

 they are but with this difference that the Antarctic 

 fixed ice be not supported by land above the sea 

 level as it is, but be aground on solid earth every- 

 where 100 fathoms below the sea-level. The un- 

 dermining influence of the water washing against 

 the ice all round would certainly cause more ot 

 icebergs to break away from it than at present : its 



