M. Charpentiei' on the Erratic Phenomena of the North. Gl 



climate must have extended over a large surface, wliich must 

 have comprised, as we shall immediately see, Finmark, Lap- 

 laud, Norwa}-, and the greater part of Sweden and Finland. 

 Consequently, a glacier formed at once over so large a surface, 

 must, in a short time, have acquired an immense development. 

 As it crossed the Baltic and extended to the north of Ger- 

 many, Prussia, and the plains of Russia, as far as Moscow 

 there is nothing extraordinary in supposing that the erratic 

 formation really reaches to Moscow, Stezyka, Oppeln, Leipsic, 

 &c., and that in the indications of the boundary of this forma- 

 tion, it may sometimes have been regarded as identical with 

 the diluvium, as I am almost tempted to believe. 



These considerations shew us that the supposition of a 

 glacier occupying nearly the whole of Scandinavia, and stretch- 

 ing over a portion of the countries situated to the south of the 

 Baltic, does not imply any thing impossible or contrary to the 

 laws of physics. The only thing that may appear at first 

 sight a difficulty, is the circumstance, that this glacier must 

 have traversed the Baltic and its gulfs, and that sea must un- 

 doubtedly have been, at the period alluded to, of much greater 

 extent than it now is. But what I have said in my Essay 

 (§ 305) regarding the lakes which occurred in the course 

 of the diluvian glaciers of the Alps, is equally applicable to 

 the sea ; while the localities where there were no currents of an 

 elevated temperature, like the Gulf Stream, could not have 

 been an obstacle to the progression of a glacier of such vast 

 breadth as the diluvian glacier of the north. 



The erratic formation presents itself in the north under the 

 same form as in the Alps, and exhibits the same phenomena. 

 Thus, the debris of the rocks are sometimes scattered widely, 

 which is most frequently the case, and sometimes accumulated 

 in bands or mounds. Fragments of all sizes are met with 

 mixed pell-mell, without any separation, according to their 

 volume. Many of them have their prominent portions well 

 preserved, as well as their surfaces. The rocks, as in the 

 Alps, exhibit marks of wearing and rubbing, smooth surfaces, 

 striae, furrows, and vertical erosions in the form of caul- 

 drons. 



Deposits of diluvium are likewise nut with, comi oseJ of 



