280 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADJAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. VIII 
immense ice sheet extended from the Arctic Ocean. J. Geikie, however, 
admits that the direction of glaciation in the extreme north of Scandinavia, 
the peninsula of Kola Finland radiated outwards from the high grounds of ~ 
Norway and Sweden flowing north and north-east into the Arctic Ocean 
and White Sea. Again if we turn to this continent we have the evidence 
of Dr. Dawson, who says of the Arctic Coast of America that erratics 
moved northwards. Dr. Bessels, says re Smith’s Sound, latitude 81°.30’ 
‘‘the trend of boulders is from south to north,” and Dr. Bell says the same 
of Hudson’s Bay. Hence it is conclusive that if we postulate the exist- 
ence of an ice sheet, it did not and could not have extended from the 
Arctic Ocean, but from some point further south, otherwise its northern 
portion could not have radiated to the north. In 1865 Agassiz visited 
Brazil, of which he says, ‘‘ During this period two vast caps of ice stretched 
from the northern pole southwards and from the southern pole northwards, 
extending in each case towards the equator and ice fields such as now 
spread over the Arctics, covered a great part of the temperate zones.” He 
classifies the unstratified clay deposit of the Rio drift and its vicinity as 
genuine glacial drift, simply because it is unstratified, but the ochreous 
sandy clay of the Amazon valley, which is stratified, he claims was deposited 
by water held back by a terminal moraine, which he says then closed that 
valley from the sea. Unfortunately for this unique theory, although over 
forty years have elapsed, no other geologist has been able to relocate that 
terminal moraine. On the subject of Diluvial and fluvial deposits, the 
diluvial or stratified deposits of the Pleistocene, seem generally to be 
acknowledged by glacialists to be due to floods. James Geikie says, 
the wide and deep masses of Loss (brick earth) which characterize such 
valleys, as those of the Rhine and Danube. The considerable elevation 
attained by these deposits, and their vast extent. ‘‘The great bulk of the 
loamy deposits, I would assign to the action of vast inundations. I be- 
lieve the same rule holds true for all the great river valleys of Europe.” 
He also says, ‘‘these deposits are the results of the great floods that took 
place doubtless as stated, all through the glacial period.” 
Turning to this continent Prof. Dana says, ‘‘That a flood vast beyond 
conception was the final event in the history of the glacier (American) is 
manifest, in the peculiar stratification of the flood made deposits. Only 
under the rapid contributions of immense amounts of sand and gravel 
from so unlimited a source, could such deposits have been accumulated.’’ 
Dr, Dawson, however, goes further when he says, ‘‘I have not found 
either in the Laurentian region, or over the area of the plains, or in the 
Rocky Mountains, any evidence necessitating the supposition of a great 
northern ice cap—or its southern progress—to reach the 49th parallel a 
northern ice sheet would have to move up the long slope from the Arctic 
Sis 
