M. Charpeiitier on the Erratic Phenomena of the North. 59 



group, to the Caucasus, to the Himalaya, &c., their present 

 configuration.* It must have been the effect, the inevitable 

 consequence, of that revolution (£ssai, § 82). The facts de- 

 mand this conclusion in so decisive a manner, that it is even 

 admitted by geologists who do not adopt the glacier hypo- 

 thesis. Thus M. Durochert supposes, " that the vi^inters in 

 Europe were colder during the geological period which imme- 

 diately preceded the present one ;" that is to say, the epoch 

 during which the dispersion of the erratic debris took place. 

 This opinion is supported in a note at the bottom of the page 

 by INI. Elie de Beaumont. Instead, however, of supposing 

 with M. Durocher, the existence of colder winters than those 

 of the present day, I should rather be inclined to believe that 

 they were more snowy than they now are, but that the sum- 

 mers were more rainy and colder, so that the difference 

 between the mean temperatui'e of summer and that of winter 

 was less considerable than it is at present. Such a climate 

 must have been very analogous to that of Terra del Fuego, 

 and the northern coast of the Straits of Magellan ; for, judg- 

 ing from the work of Mr Darwin, J the climate of the most 

 southern portions of America is perfectly similar to that which 

 must formerly have prevailed in the north, if the summers in 

 the former were a little more cold and more rainy, and the 

 winters more snowy. If this were the case, these regions 

 Avould now present us with the same phenomenon which was 

 formerly exhibited in the north, that of a vast country entirely 

 covered by an immense glacier. 



There is another difficulty which prevents many persons 

 from adopting the hypothesis of glaciers for the explanation 

 of the erratic phenomenon of the north, a difficulty arising 

 solely from the erroneous idea conceived of the origin of 

 the snow or the ice that must have formed that immense 

 glacier. They, in fact, imagine, that the snow which has 

 formed the ice of a glacier, proceeds entirely from the moun- 

 tain on which it takes its origin ; and they found this opinion 



* Elie de Beaumont in tlie French translation of De la BecLe, p. 659. 



t Report on a Memoir by M. Duroclier, entitled, Observations svr le Phbio- 

 inr^ie Diluvial dans le Nord del'Eitrojie, -p. 25. (Conqihs Jiaidtis, vol. xiv. p. 

 101, Edit.) 



t .Journal of Eescarches in Geology, &c. 



