342 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



waves, and set afloat as icebergs. The shores of Spitzbergen, literally the Peaked Moun- 

 tains, consist of conical elevations rising abruptly from the sea to a height of between 

 1500 and 3700 feet, which are separated from each other by narrow valleys opening 

 towards the ocean, all of which are occupied by glaciers. This is the physical condition 

 also of the east coast of Greenland, and of various parts of its western shores, which toge- 

 ther are supposed to present a breast-work of ice to the play of the waves upwards of 

 600 miles in length. The separation of masses from the main body, by the undermining 

 and wrenching power of the sea, has often been witnessed by the Danish residents in that 

 region ; and the calving of the glacier is a phrase commonly applied by the natives to the 

 operation. Henderson gives an interesting description of the arrival of these immense 

 fragments at Iceland, drifted from a more northern latitude. They are sometimes seen 

 moving towards the coast, not unfrequently piled one above another, more resembling 

 islands, with mountains, castles, and spires, than bodies of ice. They have been known 

 to run aground in five hundred feet of water. Their motion, when accelerated by the 

 wind and current jointly, is often so great that no six-oared boat is able to keep up with 

 them. During the agitation of a storm, the icebergs are dashed against each other in the 

 most tremendous manner ; the noise arising from the crash is heard at a great distance ; 

 and it has occurred that drift timber, jammed in between the masses, has taken fire from 

 the friction, presenting a scene the most incongruous that can possibly be imagined. The 

 arrival of the drift ice produces a great effect upon the climate, the thermometer sinking 

 several degrees ; and the Greenland bear is often a passenger with it, to the terror of the 

 natives ; for, having been long at sea, the natural ferocity of the animal is strengthened 

 by the keenness of hunger. 



The constitution of icebergs, and the immense distances to which they are transported 

 from the scene of their birth by the oceanic currents, are thought to offer a solution to a 

 common geological phenomenon. This is the occurrence of erratic blocks, or boulders, 

 isolated fragments of rock, which have no identity with those of their immediate site, nor 

 with any to be found within hundreds of miles of the place of their deposition. Blocks 

 of granite of extraordinary magnitude lie upon the limestone slopes of the Jura range of 

 the Alps; and some parts of England, with the great level to the south of the Baltic, are 

 strewed with pieces of primitive rock, of a nature kindred to that of the mountains of the 

 Scandinavian peninsula. Different explanations have been given of the means by which 

 these erratic blocks hare been conveyed from their native beds to their present sites ; 

 and, with great probability, they have been referred to the agency of icebergs, or drifting 

 glaciers. Almost every ice formation of this kind in the Alps is found thickly covered 

 with rocks and debris, which have been disintegrated by the action of frost and thaw, 

 heat and cold. They are carried along with the glaciers in their downward course, and 

 quietly deposited upon the levels and slopes of the lower valleys on the melting of their 

 icy vehicles. The glaciers of the polar regions present precisely the same features. 

 They are precipitated into the ocean laden with strata of earth and stones, or with rocky 

 masses of great size, which are transported by them into lower latitudes, and are finally 

 strewed upon the floor of the great deep, upon the dissolution of the icebergs. Captain 

 Scoresby mentions having seen some far from land in the polar seas, which supported 

 fragments of rock and soil, conjectured to be above fifty thousand tons in weight. Let 

 but the bed of the sea where these fragments are deposited be elevated, so as to become 

 dry land, a change which we know has taken place with reference to large tracts of the 

 present surface of Europe, and erratic blocks would be exposed to the eye of the spec- 

 tator, similar to those which now cover the sandy plains of Pomerania. 



It is easy to conceive of the incessant vigilance and practical skill which the navi- 

 gation of the polar seas requires, in order to be conducted without a fatal catastrophe. 



