372 CLIMATIC CONDITIONS OF THE GLACIAL EPOCH. 



have been, very differently situated as regards their being covered with ice 

 or snow. The regions in question are, the Ural Mountains, the Scandinavian 

 Range, and the West Coast of Greenland. The latter is, in reality, a moun- 

 tain range, as has been shown in the preceding pages,* although we unfor- 

 tunately know neither its elevation, nor how complicated its structure may 

 be, nor how far it extends to the east. The important point in connection 

 with our present inquiry is, that these ranges of mountains occupy similar 

 positions as to latitude. They all lie between the parallels of 60° and 70°. 

 It is true that Greenland extends far to the north of 70°, and also that the 

 Ural Mountains are prolonged considerably to the south of 00°; yet, as that 

 part of the former country which lies between 60° and 70° is as heavily 

 glaciated as any portion of it, and as the Ural presents the same characters 

 to the south of 60° as it does to the north of that parallel, we may, for pur- 

 poses of comparison in connection with our present inquiry, fairly consider 

 the three ranges as being similarly situated in latitude. 



Yet these chains differ entirely from each other as respects their glacia- 

 tion, both past and present. The Ural is not now, nor has it been at any 

 former time, to any perceptible extent the abode of ice or 23ermanent snow. 

 The Scandinavian Range has at present some large neve fields scattered over 

 its summit, from which numerous glaciers descend, but it cannot be said to 

 be glaciated to ax\y considerable extent. That it was so in former times has 

 been shown in the preceding pages. The west coast of Greenland, on the 

 other hand, is in the full enjoyment of a "■ Glacial epoch," — that is to say, 

 it is in large part covered with ice or snow.f Here, then, we have presented 

 to us an opportunity for investigating the problem of glaciation, and of ascer- 

 taining by comparison of topographical and climatic conditions how it is that 

 regions at the same distance from the Pole are so differently conditioned as 

 respects their present glaciation, it being reasonable to suppose that similar 

 differences must have had similar results at a former epoch, and that we may 

 thus have some light thrown on the problem before us. 



It is necessary, however, before proceeding farther, to call to mind that 

 even in Greenland we have not all the conditions which were realized in 

 Scandinavia during the culmination of the Glacial epoch in that region. 



* See ante, pp. 296-310. 



t It may be well to call attention, in this connection, to the fact that a part of Iceland is as thoronghly under 

 the regime of a Glacial epoch as any country can be, wliile another and a lower portion is inhabited by an en- 

 lightened people, and cultivated to a certain extent. 



