on (he Erratic Phenomena of Scandinavia, 119 



glacialist school consider these deposits to be ancient mon 

 raines." Already in my first reply,* I had insisted at length 

 on the action of waters which have arranged the materials of 

 moraines, or have so deposited them as to form terraces or 

 osars. In Switzerland, the aqueous debacle, arising from the 

 melting of glaciers, has produced analogous effects ; but in 

 Sweden, the phenomenon is complicated by the successive 

 immersion and emergence of a great part of the shore, before 

 and after the ancient extension of glaciers. 



Reply to M, Durocher's Objections to the idea of the Ancient Ex- 

 tension of the Glaciers of Scandinavia^ 

 The Scandinavian peninsula is a mixed country, composed 

 of mountains, valleys, and undulating plains. This country 

 has not preserved, nor does it yet preserve, a constant level 

 above the sea; it has been sunk under and raised from the 

 water once or many times. It has, therefore, been subjected 

 to very complex actions ; the action of glaciers more exten- 

 sive in former times than now,— the action of water arising 

 from the melting of these glaciers, — the action of the sea at 

 a greater or less distance from its present shores. It would, 

 therefore, be very illogical to explain all by a covering of ice, 

 or to desire to account for all the facts by one or more dilu- 

 vial currents. Now, M. Durocher always imagines that the 

 advocates of the ancient extension of glaciers ascribe all the 

 erratic phenomena of Scandinavia exclusively to the action of 

 ice. He has in this way created a convenient adversary 

 whom he can easily combat. Eut let us look to the facts. 

 The author supposing, from the direction of the striae, that 

 one and the same agent has furrowed Sweden from the 63d 

 to the 59th degree of latitude, calculates the general incli- 

 nation of the ground for a length of 450 kilometres ; he finds 

 it to be two minutes only, and concludes that a glacier could 

 not move over so slight an inclination. But observation has 

 decided nothing as to this point; the glacier of the Aar 

 moves over a bottom which inclines only 1° 30', and M. Hop- 

 kins has proved experimentally that a block of ice, melting 



* Bulletin dc la Socicte Gcologique, 1845, page 122 and following. 



