398 Miscellanies. 
greatly indebted to Agassiz. I now feel as if the dynamics of this 
most difficult subject were nearly settled. Mr. Lyell had, indeed, done 
very much towards such a result; but the strize and moraines still re- 
mained unexplained, till the glaciers of the Alps had been explored. 
As to Mr. Murchison’s views, I did indeed state, on the authority of 
a friend in London, who is a member of the Geological Society, that 
Mr. Murchison among others had “ more or less fully” adopted the 
views of Agassiz. But I meant only that general adoption which I had 
given them ; for in a note on page 28,* I stated Mr. Murchison’s views 
in his own Seti from his pamphlet on the Geological Structure of 
Northern and Central Russia, §c., giving the precise theory which he 
has more fully explained in his recent address: so that in fact, there 
has been no misapprehension of his opinions in my own mind, whatever 
error there may be in my language. In explaining his views I added 
this remark: ‘very likely the glacier theory may need some analogous 
modification to adapt it to this country.”’ It will be seen from this sen- 
tence, that my mind was entirely: unsettled as to the origin of the ice 
and water which have produced drift, and that I was quite as favorably 
inclined towards the peculiar views of Mr. Murchison as of any | 
geologist. 
It is of little consequence to the public what are my views on this 
subject ; and I should not have asked a page of your Journal for expla- 
nation, did I not fear that my views, thus misunderstood, might be re- 
garded as an index of the opinions of American geologists, as indeed 
Mr. Murchison intimates, (p. 68.) But I doubt whether he could find 
any one of them ready to adopt the unmodified glacier theory of Agas- 
siz; although doubtless many will admire the ingenuity and indom- 
itable perseverance of that distinguished naturalist, and thank him for 
the great light which his labors are cast upon the phenomena of ie 
5. Ancient Meteorological Workves -—The following statements are 
copied from ‘An Appendix touching Prodigies in New England,” 
subjoined to “ A Sermon, (entitled the Way to Prosperity,) p 
to the Honourable Convention of the Governour, Council, and Repre- 
sentatives of the Massachuset-Colony in New England, on May 23, 
1689. By Cotton Mather. Boston: Printed by Richard Pierce, for 
Benjamin Harris. A.D. 1690.”—16mo., in all pp. 53. ‘The accounts 
have received a tinge from the fancy of the learned and curious writer, 
but are evidently entitled to ordinary credit. ‘The fragments, which 
-probabl; thrown down by the explosions of the meteor, may have 
e “2 ahaa guage sa: te Be 
Z Be: aa He. 
