242 On the Erratic Fhenomena of Scandinavia. 



found the same regularity in the striation on the transition- 

 slate of the shores of Mjosen lake ; on the leptynitic gneiss of 

 the valley of Guldbrandsdalen, where I have, at the same time, 

 seen exceedingly well characterised moraines ; at the passage 

 of Laurgaard; in the high valley of Tofte, which also presents 

 numerous moraines derived from the Do vrefj eld (Snaehattan), 

 and from Romsdalen : I have also seen rocks striated in the 

 same manner in the valley of the Glommen, and among other 

 localities between Flierdal and Eidsvold. I mention expressly 

 this last locality, because we there find numerous examples 

 of granitic rock, which are as distinctly striated on their 

 overhanging surfaces as they are above. 



Regarding the deposits of diluvial debris of Dalecarlia, 

 of Jemtland, and of Helsingland, which M. Durocher cites 

 in favour of his theory, I believe that they only require to 

 be examined with a little more attention than was bestowed 

 on them by that traveller to render it evident that they are, 

 on the great scale, precisely what the deposits of our glaciers 

 of the present day are on the small. Every one knows that 

 the water issuing from glaciers deposits sand and gravel, 

 and that the glacier itself transports a large quantity of 

 both, which it deposits at the same time as the blocks of 

 the moraines. The sands of which M. Durocher speaks 

 have been transported by water ; and the various kinds of 

 detritus alternating with these sands have been deposit- 

 ed by glaciers, which advanced and retired periodically, 

 like the glaciers of the present day. The erratic blocks 

 which are found in very great abundance throughout the 

 whole of Wermeland, Dalecarlia, and Gestricia, are often 

 of very considerable dimensions, and do not present the 

 smallest traces of transport by water, for their angles are 

 perfectly entire. I have seen some of them which must 

 have travelled more than 100 leagues to reach the spot 

 where they are now deposited. These masses of rock, con- 

 taining many thousands of cubic feet, must, according to the 

 theory of M. Durocher, have crossed pretty elevated moun- 

 tains and deep lakes by the mere force of water, and that 

 without their being at all injured, and without their losing 

 any of the freshness of their fracture ! As the principal 



