Rink.] -^oJ [March 20, 



The Greenland Inland-Ice and the Eukopean Glacial Epoch. — 

 Geologists have for many years been puzzled with the fact that the low- 

 lands extending to the south of the Baltic are strewn with stones which 

 could have no other origin than from the rocks of Sweden and Norway. 

 As from time to time more attention was drawn to these mysterious blocks, 

 they were discovered in a south-western and south-eastern direction, a 

 boundary line drawn from the Rhine in Holland, through Hamburg, 

 Erfurth, Lublin and Kiem in the heart of Russia. At the same time 

 another curious phenomenon was met with in connection with the erratic 

 blocks. Where occasionally the ground was rocky and did not surpass a 

 certain height above the sea, the surface appeared polished and marked 

 by peculiar streaks in a direction pointing more or less towards the home 

 of the erratics. This fact suggested the idea, that the transportation of 

 the blocks could have been occasioned by ice, in a similar way as when 

 glaciers are seen sliding down the mountain slopes, hollowing out the 

 ground and carrying stones along with them which afterwards will be 

 seen covering the ground when a part of the glacier is melted. It is a 

 matter of course, that in adopting this hypothesis we have to suppose an 

 arctic climate to have ruled over these tracts of Europe above alluded to. 

 But even if this be granted, it is obvious that many objections still might 

 be raised. Above all we have to take into consideration the area indi- 

 cated by the erratic blocks, and to answer the question whether in the 

 present period any ice formation exists that only approximatively corre- 

 sponds to the magnitude of the glacier of the European glacial epoch. 

 The extent of the surface it has covered is already mentioned ; as regards 

 its thickness, the traces left by it on mountain heights have led to the 

 assumption that the ground where now Berlin is situated has been covered 

 with 1000, the low valleys in Norway with upwards of 3000 feet of ice. 

 The said question, however, we are able to answer in the affirmative by 

 referring to Greenland. The recent explorations have now shown, by 

 dir. ct survey, that the margin of what we already have mentioned as 

 the inland ice forms an unbroken line from south to north without any 

 thoroughfare whatever. This certainly only accounts for 1000 miles of 

 the supposed circumference of Greenland, but there is sufficient reason to 

 suppose that the remaining 2G0O miles on an average are similar. Accord- 

 ing to this assumption the area of the inland-ice can be calculated at 360,- 

 000 square miles at the least, perhaps we may say 400,000 square miles. 

 It must only be added that very likely mountain chains may be found in 

 the interior rearing their tops above the general ice covering, and conse- 

 quently these summits are included. 



The Inland-Ice Cokresponding to an Inundation. — I mentioned 

 that the traces which the glacial epoch has left are limited to a certain 

 height above the sea. This naturally conveys the idea of an inundation, 

 and also from this point of view the present great glacier of Greenland 

 offers the most striking similarity to the supposed ice-formation of remote 



