116 Esmark an the Geological History of the Earth. 



ing through the valley, and depositing these larger and smaller 

 remains of the ruins of the mountains ; for the current which 

 brought down the large masses, and deposited them there, 

 could not possibly, at the same time, have deposited the finer 

 sand and gravel, but must have carried it down to places 

 where the influence of the current was less powerful. We may 

 indeed suppose that two different currents at different times 

 might produce this mixture ; that the first and largest current 

 deposited the large stones, and that a later and less powerful 

 current deposited the gravel and sand. At first view this sup- 

 position seems not improbable ; but, on a closer examination of 

 this mixture, we shall find that it is not consistent with fact, for 

 if a mighty current had brought down and deposited the large 

 stones in the first instance, they must in that case rest upon one 

 another, without any thing interposed between them, and the 

 gravel, brought down and deposited by the succeeding current, 

 could only have filled up the surrounding cavities ; whereas, on 

 the contrary, we find the large stones lying separated from one 

 another, surrounded by sand and gravel, a circumstance which 

 cannot be explained in another way than by supposing that the 

 whole has formerly been filled up vAi\\ ice, which has pushed 

 the whole mixed mass up the slope of the mountain. The wa- 

 ter of the ice, afterwards thawing, carried off by its rapid streams 

 a part of the stones and gravel, which were then heaped toge- 

 ther, deeper down in the valley : these heaps resemble entirely 

 those which glaciers carry before them. 



4. We come now to the fourth and the strongest proof, that 

 immense masses of ice have formerly existed in Norway, in 

 places where now no perennial ice is to be found. When I last 

 summer (1823) undertook a journey to Stavanger, to examine 

 the Union Copper Works, which have been commenced and 

 again given up, I made an excursion from the dwelling-house 

 of Fossan, which Pontoppidan, in his map, calls Fossland, in 

 Holle Annex, in the parish of Strand, to examine a branch of 

 the works at Vasbotten, about a quarter of a mile (more than 

 li English miles) north-east from Fossan. The road went 

 first over some cultivated ground, ascending a little, but after 

 between four and five thousand paces it went over a large level 

 sandy plain. This plain was overspread with a multitude of 



