Association of American Geologists and Naturalists. 157 



but on one side, a large earthy colored patch was seen, having numerous 

 blacker spots, which Mr. C. had no doubt were bowlders, scattered over 

 it. Some of these presented a surface of two or three hundred square 

 feet. 



In 1831, on a passage from Boston to Mobile, at daylight of 17th Au- 

 gust, in latitude 36° 20' north, longitude 67° 45' west, upon the southern 

 edge of the Gulf Stream, Mr. C. fell in with several small bergs in 

 such proximity to each other, as to leave little doubt of their being frag- 

 ments of a large one, which weakened by the high temperature of the 

 surrounding water, had fallen asunder during a strong gale which for 

 several days previous had prevailed from the southeast. The natural 

 tendency of this would be to force the berg into the warm northeast 

 current of the stream, where, already much worn by its prior sojourn 

 there while crossing from the north, its separation soon took place. 

 The strong northwest wind immediately following the southeast gale, 

 probably drove the fragments out of the Gulf again, to where they were 

 seen in the eddy current, which Mr. C. found to set in that place south- 

 west, at the rate of half a mile per hour. And here, said he, a sugges- 

 tion of much geological interest presented itself to his mind. Supposing 

 an iceberg of the present day to break loose from the northern polar 

 regions, loaded with blocks of stone and gravel, and drifting southward, 

 to strand upon the Banks of Newfoundland, or George's bank near 

 our own shores, and there remain for a considerable period grind- 

 ing themselves upon the ocean's bed, thereby incorporating into their 

 mass, portions of it, such as shells, gravel, sand, clay or stones. Owing 

 to the unequal action of the weather upon its surface, and water on its 

 submerged portion, it might as has been shown, turn partially or even 

 entirely over, thus placing the newly gathered matter above water, and 

 if the old were at the bottom previously to the overturn, mixing together 

 the rocks from both localities. Loaded with this additional material, 

 it might float off and resume its southerly course, till accidentally fox'ced 

 into the Gulf Stream and carried eastward at the rate of 24' a day, (the 

 mesin velocity of the Stream in the meridian referred to,) till it was melted 

 away. To affect this dissolution would require three or four months, 

 dui'ing which time, the berg would be carried six or seven hundred 

 miles in a direction nearly at right angles with its primary drift, depos- 

 iting a greater or less quantity of transported material along its entire 

 track. Mr. Couthouy remarked that the instance just cited, was one of 

 peculiar interest, from its illustrating the manner in which rocky mate- 

 rials imbedded in icebergs, may through the devious course of these 

 latter, be deposited along a wide range of longitude as well as latitude. 

 He called attention to the fact that this berg was to the southward of the 

 Gulf Stream, and about 18° or seven hundred and fifty miles west of a 



