130 On (he Glaciers and Climate of Iceland. 



maples, and of the Liriodendron, as well as the cones and 

 needle-like leaves of various coniferous trees, i*emove all 

 doubt from this statement. These trees, whose well-pre- 

 served leaves, and whose stems, often a foot thick, are found 

 regularly deposited, must be supposed to have grown at some 

 past period in Iceland, not to have been brought thither in 

 the form of drift wood ; and from them we may conclude, 

 that, during the tertiary period, the climate of Iceland was 

 milder than at present.* 



A similar inference appears to be derivable from the fossil 

 shells of Iceland, although, on account of the limited number 

 of the fossil as well as of the living species, the conclusions 

 thus drawn must be less certain than those obtained by like 

 means with reference to the more southern regions of Europe. 



Although these observations on the vegetable and animal 

 kingdoms indubitably favour the supposition that a greater 

 M'armth and a milder climate formerly prevailed in Iceland, 

 still the phenomena of the so-called glacier markings appear 

 to lead to a directly opposite conclusion. 



For some years past, the glacier strife and smoothed 

 surfaces, especially those in the granite and gneiss of Scan- 

 dinavia, have attracted the attention of geologists, and have 

 been the soiu'ce of much discussion. In this question, also, 

 the great and prejudicial mistake which constantly recurs 

 in spite of so many warnings from the history of science. 



Surturbrand, and we cannot refrain from expressing tlie wish that his observa- 

 tions, so interesting in themselves, and so important for geology, were no longer 

 withheld from the friends of this science. Much to our regret, we were un- 

 able to visit those remarkable localities of the Surturbrand at Ilredavatan and 

 Laugarwasdalr, though we were in the neighbourhood on our journey to the 

 trachytic cone of Baula. The summer was excessively unfavourable, and seve- 

 ral weeks of incessant rain, accompanied with cold, overthrew all our plans in 

 this district, and compelled us to return to Reykjavik. 



* Professor Steenstrup has, in the collection of the Museum of Copenhagen, 

 several impressions of leaves of a species of Liriodendron, which are so dis- 

 tinctly formed, and so well preserved, that they cannot be mistaken, and which 

 are found to be characteristically distinct from those of Liliodendron tulipifera. 

 Oak leaves are found in none of the above mentioned localities, a fact which 

 makes Olafsen's statement certainly appear doubtful, although we do not ven- 

 ture to contradict his observations made in Isefiords-Lyssel. 



