128 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. CHAP. xii. 



was a considerable distance to the northwest, where it 

 must have reached a still greater altitude. 



The complete similarity of the conclusions reached by 

 four different sets of observers in four different areas 

 Switzerland, northwestern Europe, the British Isles, and 

 North America after fifty years of continuous research, 

 and after every other less startling theory had been put 

 forth and rejected as wholly inconsistent with the phe- 

 nomena to be explained, renders it as certain as any 

 conclusion from indirect evidence can be, that a large por- 

 tion of the north temperate zone, now enjoying a favor- 

 able climate and occupied by the most civilized nations 

 of the world, was, at a very recent epoch, geologically 

 speaking, completely buried in ice, just as Greenland is 

 now. How recently the ice has passed away is shown 

 by the perfect preservation of innumerable moraines, 

 perched blocks, erratics, and glaciated rock-surfaces, 

 showing that but little denudation has occurred to 

 modify the surface; while undoubted relics of man 

 found in glacial or interglacial deposits prove that it 

 occurred during the human period. It is clear that man 

 could not have lived in any area while it was actually 

 covered by the ice-sheet, while any indications of his 

 presence at an earlier period would almost certainly be 

 destroyed by the enormous abrading and grinding power 

 of the ice. 



Besides the areas above referred to, there are wide- 

 spread indications of glaciation in parts of the world 

 where a temperate climate now prevails. In the Pyre- 

 nees, Caucasus, Lebanon, and Himalayas glacial mo- 

 raines are found far below the lower limits they now at- 

 tain. In the Southern Hemisphere similar indications 



