In reading the details of voyages in the arctic regions one cannot help feeling surprised how seldom reference is made to stones and rubbish being seen on icebergs. Arctic voyagers, like other people, when they are alluding to the geological effects of icebergs, speak of enormous quantities of stones being transported by them; but in reading the details of their voyages, the impression conveyed is that icebergs with stones and blocks of rock upon them are the exceptions. The greater portion of the narratives of voyages in arctic regions consists of interesting and detailed accounts of the voyager’s adventures among the ice. The general appearance of the icebergs, their shape, their size, their height, their colour, are all noticed; but rarely is mention made of stones being seen. That the greater number of icebergs have no stones or rubbish on them is borne out by the positive evidence of geologists who have had opportunities of seeing icebergs. Mr. Campbell says:—“It is remarkable that up to this time we have only seen a few doubtful stones on bergs which we have passed.... Though no bergs with stones _on them or in them_ have been approached during this voyage, many on board the _Ariel_ have been close to bergs heavily laden.... A man who has had some experience of ice has _never seen a stone on a berg_ in these latitudes. Captain Anderson, of the _Europa_, who is a geologist, has _never seen a stone on a berg_ in crossing the Atlantic. _No stones were clearly seen on this trip._”[149] Captain Sir James Anderson (who has long been familiar with geology, has spent a considerable part of his life on the Atlantic, and has been accustomed to view the iceberg as a geologist as well as a seaman) has never seen a stone on an iceberg in the Atlantic. This is rather a significant fact. Sir Charles Lyell states that, when passing icebergs on the Atlantic, he “was most anxious to ascertain whether there was any mud, stones, or fragments of rocks on any one of these floating masses; but after examining about forty of them without perceiving any signs of frozen matter, I left the deck when it was growing dusk.”[150] After he had gone below, one was said to be seen with something like stones upon it. The captain and officers of the ship assured him that they had _never seen a stone upon a berg_. The following extract from Mr. Packard’s “Memoir on the Glacial Phenomena of Labrador and Maine,” will show how little is effected by the great masses of floating ice on the Labrador coast either in the way of grinding and striating the rocks, or of transporting stones, clay, and other materials.