B6 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
forced into the warm north-east current of the ocean by a strong 
gale which had prevailed from the south-east. A strong north- 
west immediately following, drove them into pieces and left them 
in the position in which Mr. C. saw them^ in an eddy current, 
setting south-west at the rate of half a mile per hour. Mr. C. 
drew some important inferences from this example — supposing 
an iceberg tossed from the north polar regions loaded with 
blocks of stone and gravel, and drifting southward, to strand 
upon the coast of Newfoundland, and thereby incorporating por- 
tions of it into the soil of that shore ; unequal action of the wea- 
ther upon it may have led to its turning wholly or partially over 
and with this change, suppose it to float off in its southerly 
course, till forced into the gulf stream and carried eastward at 
the rate of 24/ a day (the mean velocity of the stream referred 
to) till it was melted away. To efPecfe this dissolution would 
require three or four months, during which time, the berg would 
be carried seven or eight hundred miles in a direction nearly at 
right angles with its primary drift, depositing a greater or less 
quantity of transported material along its entire track. This 
sufficiently explained, he thought, the deposition of rocky mate- 
rials over a wide range of latitude as well as longitude. 
Mr. C. had observed another iceberg on March 4th, 1841, in 
the Pacific, 2=83 feet in height, and two-thirds of a mile in dia- 
meter. This mass enclosed immense blocks of stone, some of 
them having a surface of twenty square feet. It rotated vritb 
incredible velocity on its vertical axis, and the temperature in 
the neighbourhood of it was as follows : 
Noon. 2 P.M. 3 P.M. S^p.M. 4 p.m. 4^ p.m. 5 p.m. 5|pm 
Air ... . 54° 53° 50'' 46° 42° 37° 35° 37° 
Water ... 50° 50° 48° 44° 43° 36° 36° 40° 
Distance of berg 33' 19' 12' 8' 4|-' 1' 3' G' 
It was for geologists to determine whether these were any 
evidence of ancient diluvio-glacial action analagous to such a 
mixed deposition, and irregular distribution of materials from 
