374 CLIMATIC CONDITIONS OF THE GLACIAL EPOCH. 



in its edge. Where these are deeply cut so as to strike the neve mass at con- 

 siderable depth, there the outflow, in the form of a glacier, is proportionally 

 large, and reaches far down the slope of the range. The same is the case 

 on the west coast of Greenland, except that there the topographical condi- 

 tions seem to be still more favorable than they are in Scandinavia. It is true 

 that our knowledge of the interior of Greenland is very imperfect, but a 

 comparison of all the facts observed there leads us to infer that the form of 

 the surface is particularly well fitted to give rise to extensive ice masses. 



The Ural Mountains, on the other hand, offer the least favorable condi- 

 tions possible for the accumulation of snow. The chain is narrow and simple 

 in structure, as already pointed out. It is also somewhat less elevated than 

 the Scandinavian Range, while the latter is in all probability much inferior 

 in height to the mountains on the west coast of Greenland. 



If, then, we Avished to reproduce in Scandinavia the conditions which 

 would bring about a recurrence of its former much more extensive glaciation, 

 we should, as we are led to infer from an examination of the present situation 

 of Greenland, have to raise the height of the range, give it still more of a 

 plateau character than it now has, and isolate it, as much as possible, from 

 other land masses. But this appears, according to the investigations of the 

 Swedish geologists, to have been the condition of the country during the 

 time of its former glaciation. The Scandinavian Range had at that time a 

 greater elevation than it now has, and there can be little doubt that a large 

 part of Northern Germany and Northwestern Russia was under water at 

 least during a considerable portion of the Glacial epoch. 



Thus we have shown that precisely those conditions existed in Scan- 

 dinavia at the time of the largest development of snow and ice in that region 

 which a comparison of its present topography and climate with that of the 

 not far distant Greenland seemed to suggest as likely to bring about the ex- 

 tensive glaciation which is now exhibited in that country. That there were 

 other favorable circumstances prevailing at that time in Northwestern Europe 

 is highly probable; but it would be impossible, in the present condition of our 

 knowledge of the climatology of the Polar regions, to say exactly what these 

 conditions are. It is very possible that when we know more of the nature 

 of the Polar winds and the causes of the peculiar distribution of precipitation 

 on the lands lying within the Arctic Circle, we shall be furnished with data 

 which will enable us to go still farther into details in regard to what change in 

 the position of the land masses, and consequently in that of the ocean currents. 



