MOVEMENT OF GLACIERS. 107 



which is quite within the field of vision from these hills 

 around this city, you will find, upon the northern and north- 

 eastern sides of it, evidence that it has been subject to very 

 severe ice action. It has been torn, and bruised, and scored 

 by the action of moving ice ; and you will find the same thing 

 true, to a considerable extent, in the New Hampshire range 

 of mountains. You will find that their rocky sides, at eleva- 

 tions of a thousand, two thousand, and five thousand feet 

 above the valleys, afford evidence of rough usage from this 

 descending mass of ice. At this stage of our remarks, you 

 very naturally inquire. How came this frigid condition to pre- 

 vail at this particular epoch in the history of our planet ? To 

 attempt to answer this question, would lead me into a field of 

 speculation, in which we might wander for a great length of 

 time. Some most ingenious and plausible theories have been 

 advanced to account for the great reign of ice, but I have not 

 time to present them for your consideration this afternoon. 

 I will simply remark that evidence is afforded that there has 

 been more than one glacial period, and that another is not 

 improbable ; but the time for it to commence is so remote, I 

 think we may venture to plant our corn as usual, without 

 fear of having to dig for the crop through a covering of ice. 



The moving of glaciers is a puzzle to many, and therefore 

 I will briefly allude to this point The motion of the great 

 northern glacier which brought to us the bowlder rocks was 

 probably exceedingly slow. It moved down from the north, 

 taking our valleys and river-courses in its path, and so great 

 was the propulsive force, that it glided over the hills and 

 lesser mountains without difficulty ; nothing could obstruct its 

 onward flow. We get a very correct idea of the movements 

 of ice from a study of the glaciers which exist in Switzerland 

 at the present time. I suppose it may be a novel statement 

 to some, when I tell you, that at the present time, more than 

 1,500 square miles of Swiss territory are covered perpetually 

 with ice, and the whole of the land north of the lower quarter- 

 section of Greenland is also covered continually with solid ice 

 masses. The same conditions exists in Greenland to-day, as 

 far as glacial action is concerned, that existed here thousands 

 ^of years ago. Now, if we have glaciers existing at the present 

 day, and if we study their action, we must obtain some facts, 



