

Arctic Explorations. 239 



against the waves, this emerged ridge ^vould be bordej-cd by an- 

 other part of the polar current; and so also for the lower Appa- 

 lachian ridge : while farther south, the warmer equatorial currents 

 would sweep on, moving over and partly to the eastward of these 

 'Colder streams, especially after passing north of 35° or 40^. The 

 effects of the distribution of material by the* Agencies of these 

 marine movements on the origin of the older formations, remain 

 to be studied out Their importance has been admitted but not 

 fully appreciated. 



In discussions of the phenomena of the so-called Drift-period, 

 oceanic currents are constantly referred to by those who attrib- 

 ute the effect to glaciers; and the example of the glaciers that 

 float down to the Newfoundland Banks are the usual appeal. 



But instruction from the north tells us, that the Newfoundland 

 icebergs have brought their stones one or two thousand miles, 

 and often by a very circuitous route, while those of the drift in 

 America have traveled only twenty to two hundred miles, so 

 that to find a parallel we must look to the shorter transfers and 

 droppings in the far north itself, where abundant lands exist for 

 making glaciers and icebergs. Again, the currents change with 

 the course of the land ; they are east and west in Barrow Straits, 

 and north-northwest and south-southeast in Baffin's Bay; and 

 moreover they have their powerful counter-currents. Conse- 

 <5[uentl3^ the position of the emerged land or coast-line of the 

 drift period would have then given the course to the currents 

 ^nd glaciers; if this coast line were east-und-west, along by 

 Pennsylvania and the Ohio, to the territories west of the Mis- 

 sissippi (the southern limit of the drift), the currents would 

 have been nearly east-and-west, and no chance would have ex- 

 isted for making the north-and-south or north west-and-south- 

 east scratches, which are so uniform and widely distributed over 

 the continent within the drift limits. Moreover the very uni- 

 formity of direction in the scratches and lines of stones, comes 

 out against counter-currents, and against the fact of any bergs 

 drifting outside of the northerly current, where they might be 

 floated by other cuiTcnts or carried irregularly by the \vmds, 

 that is, they militate against the very occurrences that must have 

 happened if the ocean had been the active agent in the drift 

 period. 



The example among Arctic currents of diversity of direction, 

 and the still greater diversity in the courses of bergs, give the 

 geologist little authority for concluding that in the drift period 

 they could have been made to scratch with a nearly common 

 course (between' NW and NE) for a breadth of one or two 



thousand miles. 



Icebergs^ Olaciers, — The work of Dr. Kane abounds in views 

 of icebergs, vivid descriptions of iceberg scenery, and accounts 



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