THE ICE AGE AND ITS WORK. 689 



two thousand feet, while on the Jura itself it seems to have been 

 again raised to three thousand feet at its highest point ; * and 

 he quotes Charpentier's general conclusion : 



It goes without saying that not only all the valleys of the Valais were filled 

 with ice up to a certain height, but that all lower Switzerland in which we find 

 the erratic debris of the Rhone Valley must have been covered by the same gla- 

 cier. Consequently all the country between the Alps and the Jura, and between 

 the environs of Geneva and those of Soleure, has been the bed of a glacier. 



And then, after quoting the observations of Agassiz on the same 

 phenomena and of those of North America, he gives his own con- 

 clusions in the following words : 



It is plain to those who would look without prejudice that the rounded and 

 mamraillated surfaces, the scratched, polished, and grooved rocks, and a great 

 number of the phenomena which accompanied the distribution of the bowlders 

 and the drift, are consistent only with the fact that in the last geological age 

 there was an immense development of glaciers which occupied not only the 

 high ranges of the Alps and the Dovrefelds, but the secondary ranges and lower 

 heights of the continents of Europe and North America. This conclusion seems 

 supported by every form of converging evidence, and is apparently beyond the 

 reach of cavil. So far there is no question at issue.f 



We may take it, therefore, that the views of Charpentier, Agassiz, 

 and Sir Charles Lyell as to the extent and thickness of the great 

 Rhone glacier are admitted to be correct, or, at least, not to be 

 exaggerated, by the most strenuous opponents of the extreme 

 glacialists. We may, therefore, use this as a fixed datum in our 

 further investigations, and I think it will be found to lead us 

 irresistibly to conclusions which in other cases these writers de- 

 clare to be inadmissible. Fortnightly Bevieiu. 



The cities and towns visited by the Rev. J. A. Wylie during an excursion to 

 central Manchuria in September and October, 1892, were centers of trade for the 

 surrounding country, many of them having very large distilleries, inn-yards of 

 great extent capable of accommodating hundreds of guests, and oil-works of 

 various kinds; while outside their walls were genei-ally some brick-kilns, brick- 

 works, and lime-kilns. The houses were chiefly built of brick; burned brick 

 was used for the better houses in the town, while unburned brick or mud only 

 was used in the country. In some of the towns the shop-fronts were quite im- 

 posing, substantially built, and lavishly decorated. The streets were wide and 

 level. Mr. Wyhe visited the region in the dull season, and saw, either in town 

 or country, none of the stir which all these arrangements betoken for the busy 

 season. 



* These figures are almost certainly incorrect, as the upper surface of the glacier must 

 have had a considerable downward slope to produce motion. The recent work of M. Fal- 

 san, La Periode Glaciaire, gives the thickness as about 3,800 feet at the head of the lake 

 and 3,250 feet at Geneva. 



f The Glacial Nightmare and the Flood, p. 208. 

 VOL. XLIV. 52 



