[Footnote 3: I was informed by the late Mr. Hugh Miller, that a seam of shale abounding in liassic fossils, had been found intercalated among the boulder-clay beds in the vicinity of Eathie. He explained its occurrence there by supposing that it had formed a reef along a shore where ground-ice was forming; and so having been firmly frozen in, it was torn up on the breaking of the ice, and deposited at a distance among the mud at the sea-bottom.] Few sights in nature are more imposing than that of the huge, solitary iceberg, as, regardless alike of wind and tide, it steers its course across the face of the deep far away from land. Like one of the "Hrim-thursar," or Frost-giants of Scandinavian mythology,[4] it issues from the portals of the north armed with great blocks of stone. Proudly it sails on. The waves that dash in foam against its sides shake not the strength of its crystal walls, nor tarnish the sheen of its emerald caves. Sleet and snow, storm and tempest, are its congenial elements. Night falls around, and the stars are reflected tremulously from a thousand peaks, and from the green depths of "caverns measureless to man." Dawn again arises, and the slant rays of the rising sun gleam brightly on every projecting crag and pinnacle, as the berg still floats steadily on; yet, as it gains more southern latitudes, what could not be accomplished by the united fury of the waves, is slowly effected by the mildness of the climate. The floating island becomes gradually shrouded in mist and spume, streamlets everywhere trickle down its sides, and great crags ever and anon fall with a sullen plunge into the deep. The mass becoming top-heavy, reels over, exposing to light rocky fragments still firmly imbedded. These, as the ice around them gives way, are dropped one by one into the ocean, until at last the iceberg itself melts away, the mists are dispelled, and sunshine once more rests upon the dimpled face of the deep.[5] If, however, before this final dissipation, the wandering island should be stranded on some coast, desolation and gloom are spread over the country for leagues. The sun is obscured, and the air chilled; the crops will not ripen; and, to avoid the horrors of famine, the inhabitants are fain to seek some more genial locality until the ice shall have melted away; and months may elapse before they can return again to their villages.