on the Erratic Phenomena of Scandinavia. 121 



glaciers of the posterior Rhine, Alalein, Tschingel, and Griin- 

 berg. The ancient glaciers of Switzerland present still more 

 striking examples of this mode of progression. I shall recall 

 to M. Durocher's recollection the succession of hills which 

 he must have seen in descending the valley of the Aar ; 1st, 

 the two Baerenblihl ; 2il, the groups of moutonneed rocks 

 which we cross in going from the Aar to the hospice of the 

 Grimsel, and which form the contrefort of Naegelisgraeth ; 

 3fl?, the Spitalnollen ; 4/A, the Kirchet, which are covered on 

 all sides with strias characteristic of the action of glaciers, 

 identical in every respect with those which the Aar is engra- 

 ving in the present day under our own observation. 



I was astonished, I must confess, to find the following re- 

 mark among the objections to the ancient extension of gla- 

 ciers : " In the country of Areskutan," says M. Durocher, 

 " the erratic agent must necessarily have had an ascending 

 motion ; it has set out from a lower country to ascend to 

 another 222 metres higher than its point of departure ; it is 

 not, therefore, a glacier which has engraved the striae of 

 Areskutan." This difficulty is indisputable ; but it appears 

 to me, that if it be difficult to admit that a glacier can raise 

 raise itself up a slope, it is still more difficult to conceive 

 that a diluvian current could flow up one ; and if we were 

 forced to choose between the two suppositions, there is no 

 one who could not decide for the glacier. In truth, it has 

 not been demonstrated that a glacier cannot ascend a decli- 

 vity by resting itself against an obstacle at the bottom, whilst 

 water cannot move against the laws of gravity. This alleged 

 objection, therefore, against glaciers is only a local problem, 

 of which M. Durocher has been unable to find the solution. 

 There is one, however, which I have endeavoured to give, in 

 favour of currents as well as of glaciers. The coast of Nor- 

 way, as is well known, is subject to considerable oscillations ; 

 and we may affirm, that, in the glacial epoch, the relative 

 levels of the sea, of the coast, and of the interior of the coun- 

 try, were not the same as they now are. Everywhere in the 

 Gulf of Christiania, and elsewhere, the striee are continued 

 under the sea. It is, therefore, extremely probable, that at 

 the era of glaciers the coast was more elevated than at the 



