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geographical research. This great icy tract, which was described 
as exhibiting hills and valleys, and even rocks upon its surface, has 
entirely disappeared in the short intervening time; for Captain Ross 
has sailed completely through the parallels of latitude and in the same 
longitude which it was said to occupy. As we cannot suppose that 
the American navigators were deceived by atmospheric phenomena, 
so must we believe that what they took for solid land, was one of the 
enormous accumulations of ice called “packs,” the great source of 
those numerous ice islands, which periodically encumber the South- 
ern Seas. 
Continuing his progress towards the South Pole in almost open 
sea, Captain J. Ross discovered, as he proudly says, “ for the honour 
of England,” the southernmost known land, which he named Vic- 
toria, and which he coasted for more than eight degrees of latitude. 
This land rises in lofty mountain peaks, from 9000 to 12,000 feet 
in height, perfectly covered with eternal snow, from which glaciers 
descend, and project many miles into the ocean, terminating in 
perpendicular lofty cliffs. The rocks which could be examined _ 
were of igneous origin, and near the extreme south point of his ex- 
ploration, or in S. lat. 77° 32', long. 167° E., a magnificent voleano 
was seen in full action, emitting flame and smoke at an altitude of 
12,400 feet. Further progress to the southward was then impeded 
by an enormous barrier of ice, or glaciers 150 feet high, which 
stretched from W.N.W.to E.S.E., and which the bold seaman traced 
in continuity for 300 miles, to long. E. 191° 23', and lat. 8. 78°. 
That this barrier was a true glacier was inferred from the existence 
of a very lofty chain of mountains behind it, the tops of which, as 
seen from the mast-heads, were estimated to be a degree of latitude 
to the south of the sea-face of this great wall of ice, at not more 
than half a mile from which the soundings were at 318 fathoms deep, 
and upon a bed of blue soft mud. Here then the geologist is pre- 
sented with abundant matter for speculation. Volcanos in the midst 
of eternal polar snow and glaciers, with seaward faces as wide as 
some of the continental tracts, which, from the strie and polish on 
their surface, and the wide dispersion of blocks and detritus, are sup- 
posed to have been affected by former terrestrial glacial action. 
Whilst, however, we have here the proof that existing glaciers ad- 
vance some few miles into the sea, we are also informed that the ice 
ceases suddenly against an ocean 2000 feet deep, and thus we are led 
to conclude that many glaciers, which may formerly have extended 
themselves into the sea, had a length, the extent of which, whether 
like this antarctic example, or those which have been measured in 
the Alps, was proportioned to the altitude of the ancient mountains 
against which they rested. By the same reasoning we may infer that 
the striz and polish of rocks, or accumulation of coarse detritus, and 
large blocks which are only to be observed in places far beyond the 
limits that are now established between mountains and their depend- 
ent masses of ice, cannot be due to the advance of former solid gla- 
ciers, but must rather be referred, as I have argued, to the floating 
away of vast packs and icebergs liberated from centres of congelation. 
