On the Gulf Stream and contiguous currents. 351 



red than frequent observations, and proper attention to the ship's 

 place. It is desirable, therefore, that every ship-master who tra- 

 verses this region should make and record his observations hourly 

 upon these currents. 



The drift ice from the polar basin is always found in the western 

 portion of the North Atlantic Ocean, notwithstanding the influence 

 of violent westerly winds. A writer in the London Nautical Maga- 

 zine* supposes that a portion of the polar current which bears the 

 ice along the eastern edge of the Grand Bank into the Atlantic, 

 there becomes exhausted, or joins the Florida stream. And in the 

 Encyclopedia of Geography,! it is stated that the waters in the 

 Northern Ocean, in the space comprised between Greenland and 

 the coasts of Britain and Norway, and between Labrador and Spitz- 

 bergen, are supposed to perform a perpetual circuit ; and that, being 

 returned to Newfoundland, they recommence their revolution. 



It is doubtless true that the great stream of ice is brought by the 

 Labrador current within the dissolving influence of the Gulf Stream ; 

 and I may here remark that it is not improbable that the Grand Bank 

 owes its origin to the deposits which have resulted from this process 

 during a long course of ages.J But the polar current probably 



* Nautical Magazine for March, 1837, p. 139. In this article it is stated that 

 between 42° and 43° west, is the farthest easterly position in which floating masses 

 of ice have usually been found. 



t Phil. Edition, 1, p. 196. 



?: It is not intended by this remark to express any doubt of the well supported 

 theories of elevation which are maintained by modern geologists. That large 

 masses or blocks as well as smaller fragments and masses of earth, are removed 

 from the rocky clitTs of the northern regions by the icebergs, and transported by 

 these floating masses upon the bosom of the ocean, is a fact which has frequently 

 been noted by scientific navigators and goes far in support of the above suggestion. 



To the writer it appears that the remarkable transfer of blocks and boulders from 

 northern rocks to more southern positions which is so universally observed in the 

 United States, and in the northern countries of Europe, may with great probability 

 be attributed to the transporting effect of ice aided by the polar currents, during 

 the long period when these countries were in a state of total or partial submersion. 

 A block pertaining to the feldspathic formation of the Blae Mountains west of 

 Lake Champlain and weighing perhaps fifty tons, is found on the west side of the 

 Hudson at Cocksackie, about one hundred and twenty miles south of the original 

 position. Smaller fragments of the same rock have also been noticed by Lieut. 

 Mather in his geological report as being found in Orange County N. Y., and the 

 writer is informed that they are even found in the state of New Jersey, near two 

 hundred and fifty miles from their place of origin. 



Mr. Lyellhas fully recognized this mode of natural transportation, and shows 

 that it is adequate to produce very extensive results. He shows also that icebergs 



