112 M. Ch. Martins' Bemarks on M. Durocher's Memoir 



concludes without saying a single word on the force of facts 

 which demonstrate that it is not water which has grooved 

 the striae of which he speaks ; for it would be necessary to 

 admit ten currents, perfectly rectilinear, simultaneously or 

 successively directed towards the four cardinal points, with- 

 out deviating from a straight line ; a supposition inadmis- 

 sible and contrary to all that we know of the laws which re- 

 gulate the courses of water, whatever may be their force or 

 volume. 



The extension in ancient times of the Scandinavian gla- 

 ciers, easily explains the varied directions of the striae in the 

 different regions of the peninsula. Their very parallelism 

 would be an objection against the glacial hypothesis, admit- 

 ting of no reply. Let us, in the first place, examine this phe- 

 nomenon in Switzerland, where it has been studied with the 

 greatest care, and by individuals possessing the most pro- 

 found knowledge of the progress and effects of glaciers now 

 existing. In Switzerland, as in Sweden, the strise assume 

 the most varied directions ; it is easy to account for this. 

 The plain which separates the Alps and the Jura, was for- 

 merly filled with glaciers, which descended by the principal 

 basons of rivers, whose source is in the Alps ; the Arve, 

 Rhone, Aar, Reuss, Limmat, and Rhine. But each of these 

 glaciers, carrying along with it the rocks which characterise 

 it, had a different direction. Thus, while the glacier of the 

 Rhone formed striae in the Valais, between Sion and Mar- 

 tigny, running from ENE. to WSW., the ancient glacier of 

 the Rhine passed over the moutonneed rocks, which bear the 

 ruins of Baerenburg, near Andeer in the Grisons, in the di- 

 rection from SW. to NE. ; and the glacier of Val-Montjoie 

 grooved the polished rocks in the neighbourhood of Nant- 

 Bourant, at the foot of Col du Bonliomme, in the direction 

 from SSE. to NNW. Nay, more ; the direction of the striae 

 engraved by a glacier is not the same at different parts of its 

 progress. In the environs of St Maurice, for example, the 

 glacier of the Rhone has left striae on the limestone, running 

 from SE. to NW., while above Vevay, the gompholite is 

 striated nearly in the direction from E. to W. At the mouth 

 of the valley of Chamonix, in front of the village of Ouches, 



