IM Tnn,sarlin!,s.—Mi,r^'ll(i>icnns. 



For some years previous to 1872, the antarctic stream came loaded with 

 huge islands of ice, to an extent not witnessed by mariners since the route 

 round Cape Plorn became so fi-O'piented a higlnvay as it has been since the 

 gold discoveries. 



Navigation in those seas was for a time so extremely perilous that 

 insurance companies became alarmed, and many shipmasters sgnt their 

 vessels to strug'^dc back against tlie westerly winds by the Cape of Good 

 Hope. Auotlier great separation of bergs from their parent glaciers, an 

 occurrence which has no doubt gone on intermittently in all ages, happened 

 in lH2i), as related by Sir Charles Lyell. Then, as in these late years, 

 many bergs retained the dimensions of islands when they had reached the 

 longitude of the Cape of Good Hope ; some had nearly circumnavigated 

 tJie globe before they foundered in Australian seas, and one was still many 

 miles in length when seen off Cape Leuwin, An excellent opportimity was 

 afforded for the conveyance of seeds of the same plants if any are pro- 

 duced or remain possessed of vitality in the soil of the lands from which 

 they came, to different places in their route, a possibility dwelt upon by 

 Mr. Darwin, in alluding to the sprinkling of tlio same flora in far distant 

 regiiiis; it .soem.-s probable tliat ha 1 the climate been suitable, plants now 

 unknown there might have by this means beeii brought far up into 

 Australia when the laud was lower, as there is evidence of bergs having 

 been drifted upin former times high into Spencer's Gulf, on the shoresof which 

 large boulders of foreign rocks have been left by them. There are no data as 

 yet upon which to found a tlieory as to the periodicity of these occurrences, 

 which might connect the action of the main-spring which sets the maclnnery 

 in motion, with rv\j of the many causes, magnetic, sidereal, etc., which have 

 been proposed as influencing alternating cycles of dry and wet seasons — 

 such as the return of ]3iela's comet every six and a half years — the time of 

 the solar spots every eleven — the twelve-year cycle supposed to have to do 

 with the long one of the revolution of the jjlanet Jupiter, etc., etc. How- 

 ever this may bo, there is every reason for believing that when polar winds 

 are more than usually cliillod over certain oceanic areas, they will blow 

 with more force, and mingling with other aerial currents nearer to the 

 tropics than in ordinary seasons, condense their moisture. 



Australian climates would be the principal ones affected by such a 

 cause, so we find that after the great ice-stream alluded to, the following 

 years were wet ones in the then occupied part of New South Wales. 

 Again, in 1800, commenced a cycle of splendid seasons for the farmers all 

 ovtr t'le Australias, dry plains were converted into lakes, and steamers 

 ascended the tributaries of the Murrny more tlinn 1.500 miles. The 

 consequences of the ice-stream were also felt in New Zealand, In 



