April 3, 1876. 1 -"45 [Price. 



has no chronology of years, but only of the order of its own successions, 

 and the preparations, in the "beginning " of this earth, for man, there is 

 every evidence was very long, and not violent. 



James Geikie writes in more measured and careful language than any of 

 those who have lately written on the Glacial theory ; and he may, there- 

 fore, be allowed to be its reliable expositor. Writing "The Great Ice 

 Age," he says, "We must believe that all the hills and valleys were once 

 swathed in snow and ice ; that the whole of Scotland w^as at some distant 

 date buried underneath one immense mer de glace, through which peered 

 only the higher mountain-tops. This is no vague hypothesis, or specula- 

 tion founded on uncertain data, no mere conjecture which the light of fu- 

 ture discoveries may explode. The evidence is so clear and so overwhelm- 

 ingly convincing that we cannot resist the inevitable conclusion." p. 82. 

 "Now the scratches may be traced from the islands and the coast-line up 

 to the elevation of at least 3,509 feet ; so that ice must have covered the 

 country to that height at least." 83. Agassiz added one-third to the 

 height scored, that the ice-sheet might have a back pressure to pass it over 

 the elevations. "Such changes happened not once only, but again and 

 again, ' ' says Geikie, 200. 



Of North America, Geikie says, It is no exaggeration to say, that the 

 whole surface, " from the shores of the Arctic Ocean to the latitude of New 

 York (Oity), and from the Pacific to the Atlantic, has been scarped, 

 scraped, furrowed and scoured by the action of ice." 411. 



And the conclusion of Geikie's Great Ice Age is this. "Upward of 200, 

 000 years ago the Earth, as we know from the calculations of astronomers, 

 was so placed in regard to the Sun that a series of physical changes was in- 

 duced, which eventually resulted in conferring upon our atmosphere a most 

 intensely severe climate. All Northern Europe and North America disap- 

 peared beneath a thick crust of ice and snow, and the glaciers of such 

 regions as Switzerland assumed gigantic proportions. The great sheet of 

 land-ice leveled up the valleys of Britain and stretched across our moun- 

 tains and hills down to low latitudes in England." And so it is said as to 

 the north of Europe. "Ere long this wonderful scene passed away. 

 Gradually the snow and ice melted ; the arctic mammalia disappeared ; the 

 climate grew milder, until something like perpetual summer reigned in 

 Britain. Then it was that the hippopotamus wallowed in our rivers, and 

 the elephant crashed our forests ; then, too, the lion, the tiger, and hyena 

 became denizens of the English caves." Then after a "longtime " it grew 

 cold ; these tropical animals disappeared, and the arctic beasts came back ; 

 but the climate became so severe that even these "migrated southward, 

 until all life deserted Britain, and snow and ice were left in undisputed 

 possession. Once more the confluent glaciers overflowed the laud, and 

 desolation and sterility were everywhere." "We cannot say how often 

 such alternations of cold and mild periods were repeated." " A similar 

 succession of changes transpired in North America." The palaeolithic 

 man was here in the inter-glacial period, and frozen out ! 534, «&c. 



