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CHARLES DARWIN 



southward ; and on its western flank every deep creek of the 

 sea, or fiord, would end in " bold and astonishing glaciers." 

 These lonely channels would frequently reverberate with the 

 falls of ice, and so often would great waves rush along their 

 coasts; numerous icebergs, some as tall as cathedrals, and 

 occasionally loaded with " no inconsiderable blocks of rock," 

 would be stranded on the outlying islets ; at intervals violent 

 earthquakes would shoot prodigious masses of ice into the 

 waters below. Lastly, some missionaries attempting to pene- 

 trate a long arm of the sea, would behold the not lofty sur- 

 rounding mountains, sending down their many grand icy 

 streams to the sea-coast, and their progress in the boats would 

 be checked by the innumerable floating icebergs, some small 

 and some great ; and this would have occurred on our twenty- 

 second of June, and where the Lake of Geneva is now spread 

 out ! 21 



21 In the former edition and Appendix, I have given some facts on the 

 transportal of erratic boulders and icebergs in the Antarctic Ocean. This 

 subject has lately been treated excellently by Mr. Hayes, in the Boston 

 Journal (vol. iv. p. 426). The author does not appear aware of a case 

 published by me (Geographical Journal, vol. ix. p. 528) of a gigantic 

 boulder embedded in an iceberg in the Antarctic Ocean, almost certainly 

 one hundred miles distant from any land, and perhaps much more distant. 

 In the Appendix I have discussed at length the probability (at that time 

 hardly thought of) of icebergs, when stranded, grooving and polishing 

 rocks, like glaciers. This is now a very commonly received opinion; and 

 I cannot still avoid the suspicion that it is applicable even to _ such cases 

 as that of the Jura. Dr. Richardson has assured me that the icebergs off 

 North America push before them pebbles and sand, and leave the sub- 

 marine rocky flats quite bare; it is hardly possible to doubt that such 

 ledges must be polished and scored in the direction of the set of the pre- 

 vailing currents. Since writing that Appendix, I have seen in North 

 Wales (London Phil. Mag., vol. xxL p. 180) the adjoining action of glaciers 

 and floating icebergs. 



