In Eyre's
Sound, In The Latitude Of Paris, There Are Immense Glaciers,
And Yet The Loftiest Neighbouring Mountain Is Only 6200 Feet
High.
In this Sound, about fifty icebergs were seen at one
time floating outwards, and one of them must have been at
least 168 feet in total height.
Some of the icebergs were
loaded with blocks of no inconsiderable size, of granite and
other rocks, different from the clay-slate of the surrounding
mountains. The glacier furthest from the pole, surveyed
during the voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, is in lat.
46 degs. 50', in the Gulf of Penas. It is 15 miles long, and in
one part 7 broad and descends to the sea-coast. But even a
few miles northward of this glacier, in Laguna de San
[picture]
Rafael, some Spanish missionaries [14] encountered "many
icebergs, some great, some small, and others middle-sized," in
a narrow arm of the sea, on the 22nd of the month corresponding
with our June, and in a latitude corresponding with
that of the Lake of Geneva!
In Europe, the most southern glacier which comes down
to the sea is met with, according to Von Buch, on the coast
of Norway, in lat. 67 degs. Now, this is more than 20 degs. of
latitude, or 1230 miles, nearer the pole than the Laguna de San
Rafael. The position of the glaciers at this place and in the
Gulf of Penas may be put even in a more striking point of
view, for they descend to the sea-coast within 7.5 degs.
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