GLACIERS IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD. 119 



top, the thickness of the ice below water would bear a less pro- 

 portion to the height above water than as 8*7 to 1. But a berg, 

 such as that recorded by Captain Clark, 500 feet high and three 

 miles long, must have had only 1 to 8*7 of its total thickness 





Fir. 39.— Floating here, showing the proportions above and under the water 



above water. The same remark applies also to the one seeu by 

 Captain Smithers, which was 580 feet high, and so large that it 

 was taken for an island. This berg must have been 5,628 feet 

 in thickness. The enormous berg which came in collision with 

 the Royal Standard must have been 5,820 feet thick. It is not 

 stated what length the icebergs 730, 960, and 1,000 feet high 

 respectively were ; but supposing that we make considerable 

 allowance for the possibility that the proportionate thickness 

 of ice below water to that above may have been less than as 8*7 

 to 1, still we can hardly avoid the conclusion that the icebergs 

 were considerably above a mile in thickness. But if there are 

 icebergs above a mile in thickness, then there must be land-ice 

 somewhere on the southern hemisphere of that thickness. In 

 short, the great antarctic ice-cap must in some places be over a 

 mile in thickness at its edge. 



