L48 
FORMATION OF BERGS. 
excessive surface-drainage, and tlie constant abrasion 
of tlie sea, must in reality take place. My note-book 
may enable me at some future day to develop its 
details. I have referred to this as the escaladed struc¬ 
ture of the Arctic glacier. 
The indication of a great propelling agency seemed 
to be just commencing at the time I was observing it. 
These split-off lines of ice were evidently in motion, 
pressed on by those behind, but still widening their 
fissures, as if the impelling action was more and more 
energetic nearer the water, till at last they floated 
away in the form of icebergs. Long files of these de¬ 
tached masses could be traced slowly sailing off into 
the distance, their separation marked by dark parallel 
shadows—broad and spacious avenues near the eye, 
but narrowed in the perspective to mere lines. A 
more impressive illustration of the forces of nature can 
hardly be conceived. 
Regarded upon a large scale, I am satisfied that 
the iceberg is not disengaged by deb&cle, as I once 
supposed. So far from falling into the sea, broken 
by its weight from the parent-glacier, it rises from 
the sea. The process is at once gradual and com¬ 
paratively quiet. The idea of icebergs being dis¬ 
charged, so universal among systematic writers and 
so recently admitted by myself, seems to me now at 
variance with the regulated and progressive actions of 
nature. Developed by such a process, the thousands 
of bergs which throng these seas should keep the air 
and water in perpetual commotion, one fearful sue- 
