12 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 



and growing up in a glacial region, he was familiar with their 

 phenomena. He says : " As soon as geologists have learned 

 to appreciate the extent to which our globe has been covered 

 and fashioned by ice, they may be less inclined to advocate 

 changes of level between land and sea, whenever they meet with 

 the evidence of the action of water." 



Charpentier speaks of "perpetual snow-sheets and glaciers 

 reaching the sea, as far down as the middle of the present tem- 

 perate zone." Prt)f. Gunning characterizes the New England 

 ice-sheet as "colossal." Prof. Newbury, of Columbia College, in 

 a review of the evidence, reaches this conclusion : "The glac- 

 iers and snow-fields of Greenland stretched continuously down 

 the Atlantic coast, to and below New York. * * * * The 

 highlands of New England were com])letely covered and pr(jba- 

 bly deejily buried in sheets of ice and snow." Prof. Dana says 

 the ice-sheet was "semi-continental," and adds: "The height 

 to which scratches and di'ift occur about the White Mountains 

 prox'es tiiat ihe upper .surf. ice of the ice in that region was 6, GOO 

 or 6.500 feet in heigl.t, and hence that the ice was not less than 

 5,000 teet in thickness over the whole of that pait of northern 

 New England. P^icts also show that the surface height in south- 

 western Massachusetts was at least 2,800 feet, in southern Con- 

 necticut 1,000 feet or more." He again remarks that "the 

 continent underwent great modifications in the featiu'es of the 

 surface thiough the agency of ice," and points out in great 

 detail the effects produced by glacial torrents. 



It would be easy to multiply authorities, but since they can 

 be consulted by questioners and (.loubters we will not forestall 

 their studies. We assume, then, tiiat there is no one prime 

 fact in the [last annals of our planet better proved than that of 

 an age of continental glaciers. Evidence of this is increasingly 

 convincing and ma\- be found for the seeking upon nearly every 

 square yard of the hillsides and valleys of New England. 



Mankind are j^rone to treat with indifference that which is 

 common, and the familiar aspect of our lakes and rivci's, even of 



