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the solid rock. In Georgia, situated in the very same latitude,
Cook, speaking of the great ice-cliffs at the head of
every harbour, says, “ pieces were continually breaking off,
and floating out to sea, and a great fall happened while we
were in the bay, which made a noise like cannon.” He adds,
“ It can hardly be doubted, that a great deal of ice is formed
here in winter, which in the spring is broken off, and dispersed
over the sea. Mr. Sorrell, the boatswain of the
Beagle, who has long been accustomed to these seas, informs
me, that at this season he has seen small icebergs,
with mud and gravel on them, floating from the shores. I
have heard from another quarter of the same circumstance.
Captain Hunter* says, he met numerous ice-islands in this
neighbourhood, and that “ many were half black apparently
with earth from the land, to which they had adhered, or else
with mud from the bottom on which they had been formed.”
By the latter method large fragments might easily be transported,
and unless the iceberg should be upset, they would
never be discovered. Nevertheless, the islands of ice floating
in the southern ocean, and especially those occurring far
south, appear generally to be quite free from all impurities
excepting the dung of seafowl. Captain Biscoe, who extended
his enterprising researches so far towards the antarctic
pole, informs me in a letter that he never observed in
a single instancet any mud or fragments of stone on the
numerous icebergs which he encountered during his voyage.
Glaciers occur at the head of the sounds along the whole
western coast of the southern part of South America. Looking
at the chart I find sixteen places mentioned: besides
these I know of several other.s, such as those in the Beagle
channel and at the foot of Mount Sarmiento. The sounds,
moreover, were not all traced to the head, and it is in this
part that the glaciers most frequently occur. Of the sixteen
referred to, many include several frozen arms coming down
* H u n t e r ’s Vo y ag e to P o r t J a c k so n , p . 102.
I M r. S o r re ll says, t h a t h e o n c e saw a n ic eb e rg to th e e a s tw a rd o f
S o u th S h e tla n d , w ith a c o n s id e r a b le b lo ck o f ro c k ly in g o n it.
from one vast body of ice. In the Canal of the Mountains,
for instance, no less than nine descend from a mountain, the
whole side of which, according to the chart, is covered by a
riacier of the extraordinary length of twenty-one miles, and
with an average breadth of a mile and a half. It must not
be supposed that the glacier merely ascends some vaUey for
the twenty-one miles, but it extends apparently at the same
height for that length, parallel to the sound; and here
and there sends down an arm to the sea-coast.’’' There are
other glaciers having a similar structure and position, with a
length of ten and fifteen miles.
I will now specify a few of the more remarkable cases,
taken from Captain King’s paper, to which I have so often
referred. The canal of St. Andrew is said by Lieutenant
Skyring to be “ suddenly and boldly closed by tremendous
and astonishing glaciers.” The highest mountain in this
part (Mount Stokes) was ascertained during our ascent of
the river of St. Cruz to be 6200 feet, and this certainly
exceeds considerably the height of the general range. About
ninety miles to the northward. Sir G. Eyre’s Sound, in the
latitude of Paris, has its several arms terminated by glaciers.
Mr. Bynoe, the surgeon of the Beagle, who accompanied the
boat when this part was surveyed, informs me that about
mid-channel, and more than twenty miles from the head of
the sound, there were great numbers of floating masses of
ice. Standing in the boat he supposes he saw about fifty:
he, together with four of the boat’s crew, landed on one,
which although only two or three feet above the surface of
the water, felt quite steady, and easily supported their
weight. On the surface, in the central part, a mass of
granite, of an angular form, was partly embedded; and the
* I m ay r em a rk t h a t in th e c h a rt, th e g r e a te r n um b e r o f th e c re e k s
w h ic h re c e iv e th e g lac ie rs, h a v e crosses d raw n in fro n t, w h ic h sig n ify
p ro je c tin g masses o f ro ck . A f te r w h a t w e h a v e s e e n in th e B e a g le
c h a n n e l, I su sp e c t t h a t th e y a r e d e ta c h e d masses b r o u g h t d ow n b y th e
o v e rw h e lm in g fo rc e o f t h e glaciers.
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