36 GLACIERS 



lovers of the Swiss mountain valleys over the shrinking 

 of the Mer de Glace of Chamonix, the Aar Glacier of 

 Rosenlaui, and the Rhone Glacier. But they will extend 

 again some day. The Yengutsa Glacier in the Himalayas 

 has increased two miles in length since 1892. Another 

 Himalayan glacier (that of Hassanabad) had slowly shrunk 

 back during a long period until seven years ago it was six 

 miles shorter than it had been fifty years before ; then 

 suddenly it advanced over the lost ground and actually 

 grew six miles pushed its snout forward six miles, back 

 to its old position in three months ! 



The great extension at a remote prehistoric period of 

 the Swiss glaciers, and the general existence in past ages 

 of glaciers and an ice-covering of the land in Central and 

 Northern Europe, are proved by the following four pi( 

 of evidence : First, the existence of " moraines," tho< 

 huge embankment-like piles of broken rocks, many evei 

 hundreds of miles distant from the existing glaciers, oftei 

 in positions which it is clear from the " lie of the land 

 the present glaciers would have reached if they had beei 

 enormously increased in size ; second, the existence ol 

 detached rocks, called " erratic blocks," which are fouiK 

 perched on the surface of the ground at a vast distance 

 from the mountains from which their mineral structure 

 shows them to have been carried ; third, the occurrence oi 

 rock surfaces far from existing glaciers, which nevertheless 

 show the peculiar polishing and scratching which is mad( 

 only by glaciers ; fourth, the existence in more southeri 

 regions of the remains of plants and animals of kind; 

 belonging to a cold climate, and now only found in th( 

 far north, as well as the existence of Alpine plants ii 

 regions now separated from the cold upper parts of Swit- 

 zerland (where they flourish) by vast expanses of wan 

 country, over which they could not spread in the presenl 

 condition of the climate. 



