4 
sions of those of the southern regions. Three hundred feet high is the 
greatest elevation reported in which we can place reliance. In the southern 
hemisphere icebergs are reported of heights surpassing the limits of 
credibility. There are others reported by gentlemen on whose observations 
we can place implicit dependence, of heights far surpassing those of the 
northern seas.* 
The one already alluded to as sighted by the “ Lightning” on the 10th 
of September, 1856, in lat. 55° 83' S., long. 140° W., was 420 feet high; 
and one of our most celebrated and talented naval surveyors informed me 
that he had seen icebergs in southern regions 800 feet high. The 
“ Generaal Baron von Geen,” August 6th, 1840, passed an iceberg 1000 
feet high. The “ Agneta,” on the 23rd of March, 1855, passed an iceberg 
960 feet high, in lat. 53° 14' S., long. 14° 41' E. 
In horizontal dimensions, however, the icebergs of the south exceed 
those of the north to a greater extent than in elevation. It is only in the 
southern ocean that the existence of icebergs of miles in circumference is 
recorded. In September, 1840, an iceberg was seen in lat. 41° S., long. 
14° E., a mile in circumference. In January, 1858, in lat. 53° 30' S., long. 
51° W., an iceberg three miles long was observed. But these appear 
insignificant when compared with a body of ice reported to have 
been passed by twenty-one ships during the five months of December, 
1854, and January, February, March and April, 1855, floating from 
lat. 44° S., long. 28° W., to lat. 40° S., long. 20° W. This mass 
has received the various denominations of an immense iceberg, an 
ice-island, “ groote ijseiland,” and a connected mass of icebergs. Its 
elevation in no case exceeded 300 feet; but its horizontal dimensions 
were sixty miles by forty. It was of the form of a hook, the longer shank 
of which was sixty miles, the shorter forty miles, and embayed between 
these mountains of ice was a space of water forty miles across. The first 
account of it was reeeived from the “ Great Britain,” which, in December, 
1854, was reported to have steamed fifty miles along the outer side of the 
longer shank. This longest range of ice then bore N.E. and S.W., the bay 
before alluded to, being open to the N.E. Whilst in this position it ex- 
posed ships to but little danger, since the bay could only be entered on the 
* Dr. Darwen in 1796 noticed tlie extraordinary size of tlie icebergs of tbe southern 
ocean. 
