18 COAST OF NEWFOUNDLAND. [CHAP. I. 



of the Atlantic, and in given directions. The natural course of 

 oceanic currents transporting ice from polar regions is from N.E. 

 to S.W. ; the westerly inclination being due to the influence of 

 the increased velocity of the diurnal rotation of the earth s sur 

 face as we proceed southward. Now it is a well-known fact, 

 and one of great geological interest, which I had an opportunity 

 of verifying myself in 1842,^ that in Canada the polished surfaces 

 of hard rocks exhibit those strise and straight parallel grooves 

 (such as are generally ascribed to glacial action) in a N.E. and 

 S.W. direction, and the blocks called erratic have also traveled 

 from N.E. to S.W. Their course, therefore, agrees, as Mr. 

 Redfield has pointed out, with the normal direction of polar cur 

 rents charged with ice, where no disturbing causes have inter 

 vened. In order to account for the phenomenon, we have to sup 

 pose that Canada was submerged at the time when the rocks 

 were polished and striated by the grating of the ice on the ancient 

 sea-bottom ; and that this was actually the case, is proved by in 

 dependent evidence, namely, the occurrence of marine shells of 

 recent species at various heights above the level of the sea in 

 the region drained by the St. Lawrence. f Professor Hitchcock 

 has shown that, in Massachusetts, there is another system of 

 striai and grooves running from N.N.E. to S.S.W. ; the bould 

 ers and transported blocks of the same region having taken a cor 

 responding course, doubtless, in consequence of the floating ice 

 bergs having, in that case, been made by winds or currents, or 

 the shape of the land and sea-bottom, to deviate from the normal 

 direction. 



Many of the icebergs annually drifted into southern latitudes 

 in the Atlantic, are covered with seals, which are thus brought 

 into very uncongenial climates, and probably are never able to 

 make their way back again. They are often seen playing about 

 the rocks on the shores of Massachusetts in summer, so that they 

 seem able, for a time at least, to accommodate themselves to con 

 siderable heat. 



Early on the morning of the 1 5th of September, the captain 



* Sec &quot;Lyoll s Travels in North America, vol. ii, p. 135. 

 t Ibid. vol. h. p, 143. 



