Esmark on the Geological History of the Earth. 119 



downwards from the higher mountains to the lower districts, 

 and, by this progressive motion, carried with them the masses of 

 stone which they had torn from the mountains. It is easy to 

 explain why no trace of these masses thus separated is to be 

 found immediately below the precipices thus formed. 



As these mountain precipices are often from three, four, to 

 iive thousand feet high, and the valleys over which they hang 

 are likewise several thousand feet in breadth, it must be a mat- 

 ter of astonishment to think of such valleys being filled with ice 

 to the extent of several miles. This ice in lower districts must 

 have stretched a long way out into the sea, and, on its thawing, 

 large masses must have broke loose, and gone out to sea, as we 

 find takes place now in the polar regions. I have no hesitation 

 in affirming this, when I survey the effects of immense masses 

 of ice, where there is no room to be mistaken. | 



1 shall further mention the supposed effects of glacier ice in 

 another part of Norway, at the level of the sea. 



Last summer I went by sea from Bergen to Sondfiord and 

 Nordfiord, on the outside of the Scars (the rocks which lie 

 along the shore), to examine the petrifactions which Pontoppi- 

 dan talks of in his Natural History of Norway, as to be found in 

 Steensund, in the island of Gule, at the beginning of the 61° of 

 north latitude. I went on shore at different places; and although 

 I carefully examined every place around, I found not a trace of 

 petrifaction.* On the contrary, I found that the part of the 

 continent separated from it by the Sound, and the island of In- 

 ner or Easter Lule, consisted of a solid conglomerate, composed 

 of boulders, from the size of a pea to that of a man's head. 

 These boulders consisted chiefly of gneiss, quartz, and clay- 

 slate, which were involved and bound together in a mass so 

 solid, that it was difficult to find out what the binding medium 

 was, as the interstices between the large stones were com- 

 pletely filled up with small boulders. On closer examination, 

 at particular spots, I found that this binding medium was chlo- 

 rite and hard clay. 



, ___ . ^ 



* Professor Rathke, who had formerly been at the same place, and found 

 none, recommended to me to make this examination. 



