M. Charpentier on the Erratic Phenomena of the North. Qo 



The external configuration of the osars, "being in the form 



of long mounds," is, in my opinion, much better explained 



by the glacier hypothesis, than by that of a great current and 



of floating ice. 



It is the same with the fine striie which have been en- 

 graved on the surface of the rubbed and smoothed rocks. If 

 currents, transporting matter, could produce striae of this de- 

 scription, tliesc ought also to be met with on the naked rock 

 of the beds of torrents, where, however, we never find them. 

 The hypothesis of currents and of floating ice is altogether 

 insufiicient to explain the vertical erosions, having the form 

 of caldrons, so common in Scandinavia, where they receive 

 the name of Jdttegryttor, {Siesentdpfe, in German) or giants' 

 boilers.* There is, in fact, no other hypothesis but that 

 of glaciers, which can account in a manner really satisfactory 

 for this remarkable phenomenon (^Essai, § 35 and § 80.) 



If I were aot afraid of exceeding too much the limits of a 

 letter, I could adduce other improbabilities and other diffi- 

 culties which present themselves, when the whole erratic for- 

 mation of the north is attributed solelt/ to an enormous cur- 

 rent, and to floating ice. I will do this when I continue (ac- 

 cording to my announcement, Essai, preface, p. 10), my work 

 on glaciers and the erratic formation. I shall then shew that 

 this^astonishing phenomenon can be explained even to its most 

 minute details by the hypothesis of glaciers, combining it at 

 the same time with that of floating ice and currents. I 

 must, however, state, that by currents, I do not mean that de- 

 bacle, that enormous tide, which must have reached a height 

 of 2500 feet above the level of the sea, and which I cannot 

 admit ; but I suppose the existence of currents similar to those 

 of the seas of tiie present day, and to the great rivers of flat 

 countries. 



If we admit the combination of these three causes, against 

 which no valid objection can be made, we shall be able to ex- 



» Bergmann's rhijslkaUsche BcschrdhuMj der Erdkugel, vol. ii. p. 193 ; and 

 Sffstroin, in Poggendorff's Annalen, vol. xxxviii. p. C14, and in Jameson's 

 JouiTial, vol. xxiii. p. Gi>. 



VOL. XXXIV. NO. LXVII. JAXUARY 1843. E 



