THE URAL AXD CAUCASUS. 351 



north. But it is somewhat remarkable that this chain exhibits no traces of 

 any former local glaciation. During the occupation of the Scandinavian 

 Range by the immense masses of ice which are generally admitted to have 

 existed there the Ural remained entirelv unaffected. It has no glaciers now, 

 nor has it had them at any former time. Such is the statement of various 

 competent authorities who have worked in this region during later years. 

 Among the most recent information on this subject we have the following 

 from the pen of one whom all will recognize as a competent observer, General 

 von Helmersen : "The Ural appears never to have been occupied by glaciers. 

 Of the many geologists who have explored this chain and described it, not 

 one has observed upon its rocks either polished surfaces, moraines or erratic 



o 



boulders. Asar are also wanting."* 



Cotta also, in his recent work on the Altai, alludes to the absence of glacial 

 markino;s or other indications of the former existence of ice in the Ural as a 

 well-known fact. 



Considering the marked resemblance of the physical features of the Cau- 

 casus to those of the Alps, it is not at all surprising that the two chains 

 should have been influenced in a similar manner with reference to a former 

 greater extension of the glaciers. Indeed, this resemblance is now being 

 exhibited in the marked decrease of the ice masses Avhich has been going on 

 during the past twenty years or more in the Caucasian as well as in the 

 Alpine ranges, as has been set forth in the preceding section. Although it 

 was not until after several years of exploration that Abich became convinced 

 that the glaciers of the Caucasus had once been considerably larger than they 

 now are, yet this fact seems at present to be fully admitted by him, and to 

 have received abundant confirmation from the investigations of Favre. The 

 exact extent of the area occupied by the Caucasian glaciers at the time of 

 their greatest development has not yet been ascertained; but that it was 

 considerable can hardly be doubted. 



Favre thus expresses himself in reference to the former glaciation of 

 the Caucasus : " 1 have already alluded to numerous items of information 

 collected either by M. Abich or myself in regard to this subject. This in- 

 formation is still necessarily very incomplete, and I am not able to furnish 

 a complete picture of the physiognomy of the Caucasus during the Glacial 

 period. Glaciers have left the marks of their passage in the upper portions 



* G. von Helmersen: "Studien iiber die Wanderblocke und die Diluvialgebilde Russlands," Memoires de 

 I'Academie Imperiale de St. Peteisbourg : VII" Serie, Tome XIV. p. 127. 



