Geological Papers. 83 



The sun, with his attendants, had passed the turning point 

 of his orbit near Sirius, and was now advancing toward Vega ; 

 and notwithstanding the tendency of cold to perpetuate itself 

 by ice accumulation, the ice sheets had begun to recede, and 

 would have continued to do so in both hemispheres if aphelion 

 winter and maximum eccentricity had not intervened and 

 caused the northern ice sheets to advance again ; but their com- 

 bined influence, together with the still great inclination of the 

 earth's axis, could not make it advance as far south as it for- 

 merly had been ; and when the eccentricity of the earth's orbit 

 begun to wane from its maximum point the ice sheets again 

 receded and inaugurated the Champlain flood epoch, which,, 

 after it had filled the bays and gulfs up to their former level, 

 sedimented up the river troughs cut during the time that the 

 oceans were lowered by evaporation, (Notice here the differ- 

 ence: Instead of the lands being elevated during the glacial 

 epoch, the seas were lowered by evaporation.) 



Since the ushering in of the Champlain epoch the ice sheets 

 have been gradually receding, and will continue to recede as the 

 sun advances toward the nearest point in his orbit to this cen- 

 tral magnetic center, till they may disappear altogether, and 

 a paradise on earth be established similar to the one that ex- 

 isted in Miocene Tertiary times, though it is conclusive that 

 the climate will be less hot than in that period, because our 

 sun is a waning star. 



