G2 M. Clmrpcnticr on tin: Erratic Pheiiomcna of the North. 



beds of pebbles, of sand, and of mud, and not only vitliin the 

 limits of tlie erratic formation, but also beyond tliem, at a 

 great distance to the south. The Scandinavian diluvium, 

 indeed, covers a considerable extent of the north-west of 

 Russia, of Prussia, of Poland, and of the north of Germany. 

 This formation, whose materials have evidently been trans- 

 ported and deposited by water, offers a feature which has not 

 yet been observed in the Alps, and that consists in the pre- 

 sence of well-preserved angular debris, and of large blocks, 

 beyond the domain of the erratic formation. The good state 

 of preservation of their surface, of their angles, and of their 

 edges, as well as the considerable volume of a large number of 

 them, do not allow of their being regarded as having been trans- 

 ported by water. It is therefore to be presumed, that their 

 transport was effected by floating ice. The external configu- 

 ration of the region in which the glacier had its origin, and 

 that of the countries successively invaded, far from being un- 

 favourable to this supposition, render it, on the contrary, very 

 probable. In fact, the masses of ice which must from time to 

 time have been detached fi'om the glacier, and carried away 

 by the water, had not, as in the Alps, to cross narrow defiles, 

 or to follow valleys with numerous windings, in which they 

 would be speedily broken up against the mountains forming 

 the re-entei'ing angle of the bend. 



The marine shells frequently found in the diluvium, prove 

 that, at the epoch of its formation, the countries where they 

 are observed must have been submerged by the sea. The 

 perfect preservation of these molluscous animals, belonging 

 chiefly to species still living in the seas of the north, and the 

 stratification, often very regular, of these sedimentary de- 

 posits, do not allow us to doubt that the materials were trans- 

 ported by slow currents, or, at all events, by cui-rents of but 

 little rapidity. 



But those who reject the glacier hypothesis, and wish to 

 explain the erratic phenomena of the north solely by floating 

 ice and currents, fall, in my opinion, into great improbabili- 

 ties. First of all, in order to explain the marks of rubbing 

 and of wearing on the rocks, they are obliged to commence 

 with the supposition of an enormous current, flowing from 



