ICEBERGS IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. 
Having during the last ten years directed a very considerable amount of 
attention to the subject of shortening the time occupied in voyages to and 
from Australia, I have taken a very great interest in every matter calcu- 
lated to affect the risk attendant on these voyages. It was well-known 
that the Southern ocean was sometimes visited by icebergs, but this 
fact was not regarded as considerably increasing the danger of navigating 
these seas. Nor did I meet with any complaint that the new route I had 
aided in tracing out was more encumbered with icebergs than the old track, 
until the latter months of 1854, six years after the new route was adopted. 
During the months of November and December, 1854, and the first four 
months of 1855, very alarming accounts were forwarded to me of ice im- 
pediments, both on the outward and homeward passage. Naturally I felt 
especially called on to obtain all the information in my power, and to 
place it before the practical mariner in the form best suited to aid him in 
providing for the safety of his ship. Since this matter was one that would 
admit of no unnecessary delay, as early as May, 1855, I read, before the 
Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society, the results of my investigation, 
and printed and circulated them widely amongst the masters commanding 
ships bound for Australia. On that occasion I not only pointed out the 
region especially dangerous from ice, but I requested of ship-masters the 
favour of returning to me accounts of all the ice they met with in the 
Austral seas. This request has been responded to in a spirit as creditable 
to the ship-masters of Liverpool as it has been flattering to myself. It is 
rather surprising that, after three years’ investigation, I have so little, cal- 
culated to be of practical value, to add to the remarks previously published, 
although the data have been exceedingly extended. I have to acknowledge 
the aid afforded me by the records of several American gentlemen con- 
nected with the Seal trade of New South Shetland ; of Luit. J. Van Gogh, 
Director of the Marine Department of the Royal Netherland Meteoro- 
