FORMER GLACIATION OF ASIA MINOR. 353 



The only explorer who speaks of an\- former greater development of the 

 snow and ice on Mount Ararat is Dr. M. Wagner, who says that the glaciers 

 once extended considerably lower down than the}- now do. He mentions 

 the occurrence of striae and polished rock surfaces.* Mr. Bryce does not 

 allude to anything of the kind. 



The distinguished geological explorer of Asia Minor, Tchihatcheff, declares 

 that no indications of a Glacial epoch are to be found in that part of Asia.f 

 Some observers have thought they had found traces of the presence of 

 former glaciers on the Mount Lebanon Range. Sir J. D. Hooker, the emi- 

 nent botanist, describes the " Cedars of Lebanon " as growing " on a confused 

 mass of ancient moraines, which have been deposited by glaciers that, under 

 very diflfereut conditions of climate, once filled the basin above them, and 

 communicated with the perpetual snow with which tlie whole sunnuit of 

 Lebanon was, at that time, deeply covered. t No proof is offered of the 

 morainic character of the detrital material on which these famous cedars 

 grow ; and in view of tlie entire absence of indications of former glaciation 

 in Asia Minor, it seems hardly probable that the Lebanon Range, in a lower 

 latitude, should have been the abode of extensive masses of snow and ice. 

 Lartet, a skilled geologist, attached to the scientific exploration of this region 

 made under the patronage of the Due de Luynes, could find no corroborative 

 proof of Hooker's views. § 



0. Fraas, an idtra glacialist, sees in the character of the erosion of the 

 old river valleys, or wadis, of Syria, as well as in that of the detrital deposits 

 in general, all tlirough that region, the undoubted work of ice.|| In short, he 

 is one of tlic geologists who can conceive of no kind of erosion or accumula- 

 tion of debris, except through the agency of glaciers. 



We have thus passed in review all those portions of Asia in which traces 

 of a former more extensive development of snow and ice have been reported 

 to exist ; and in view of the facts here laid before the reader it seems that it 

 can hardly be possible that any one should be found who would claim that 



* III Keisc nach dein Ararat, ijnotpcl by Ri't-his, Gcofiraphie Universelle, Tome VI. p. 250. 



t Asie Mineure, Geologie III. p. 485: "Tous les phenoiiitnes de la granile perioile glaciaire serablent faire 

 defaut i la classiijue peninsule, de menie ciu'a la Grece, a la Tiirqnie d'EHrojie, et a la partie de la Russie situee eii 

 dehors du domaiiie des lilocs erratiqiies." 



J Katnral History Review, 1S62, p. 12. 



§ Bulletin de la Societe Geologi(|Ue de France, Deuxiime Serie, 1864-65, Tome XXII. p. 458. "Nous 

 n'avons jamais observe de galets stries on d'autres traces de Taction glaciaire au milieu de ces depSts." 



II Aus dem Orient, Stuttgart, 1878, p. 114. 



