1845.] Diluvial and Wave Translation Theories. 223 



appearance of stratification in the mass itself is supposed to be occa- 

 sioned by a rearrangement of these materials by subsequent aqueous 

 currents, which are also referred to as having given to the mass the 

 configuration of longitudinal reefs, or truncated mounds. 



It is well known, that the present general course of existing ice- 

 bergs is from the polar regions towards the equator. These icy masses, 

 as we glean from the writings of Scoresby and other navigators, are 

 seen drifting in the open seas — laden with beds of rock and stone, 

 brought from polar regions, the weight of which has been conjectured 

 at from 50,000 to 100,000 tons, which are deposited as they dissolve 

 either on the bed of the ocean, on the coasts, or when they ground. 

 The breadth of one of these icebergs was about 15 miles. 



A recent letter to Colonel Sabine from an Officer of the Antarctic ex- 

 pedition, states, that in Lat. 79° immense cliffs of ice were met with, 

 forming the sea borders of an enormous glacier, above which, at 

 a great many miles distance, the top of the mountains were visible. 

 The ice-cliff was constantly breaking and tumbling down, and the 

 disjointed masses congregated and floated away towards the equator 

 to 60° S. Lat., where an enormous extent of iceberg was constantly 

 to be found floating, and not fixed to any submarine ridge. Here they 

 were constantly depositing by dissolution immense quantities of 

 stones, earth, and other materials brought from the distant antarctic 

 mountains. Still more recently, Mr. Hopkins the mathematician, 

 supported by Professor Sedgwick, accounts for much of the drift on 

 the flanks of the Cambrian chain without invoking the aid of glaciers 

 or icebergs, by the hypothesis of the transporting forces of diverging 

 waves of an ocean consequent to the elevation, or paroxysms of 

 elevation, by which the mountains were raised from its bed. Such 

 waves he terms " waves of translation" because they are found not 

 to rise and fall like common waves, but wholly to rise, and maintain 

 themselves above the level of the water. The powers of such waves 

 have been reduced to laws by the experimental researches of Mr. 

 Scott Russell, which prove that a sudden elevation of a solid mass 

 from beneath the water causes a corresponding elevation of the sur- 

 face of the fluid, which infallibly produces a wave of translation of 

 the first order. 



Arguing that this wave is propagated with a velocity which varies 

 with the square root of the depth of the ocean, Mr. Russell determines 



