CHAP. XV. BY THE EROSIVE ACTION OF GLACIERS. -315 



the old littoral deposit. The great age of the lignite is partly 

 indicated bj' the bones of Eleplias antiquus found in it. 



I visited Utznach in company with M.. Escher von der 

 Linth in 1857, and during the same year examined the lignite 

 of Durnten, many miles farther down on the right bank of 

 the lake, in company with Professor Heer and Mr. Marcou. 

 The beds there are of the same age and within a few feet of 

 the same height above the level of the lake. They might easily 

 have been overlooked or confounded with the general glacial 

 drift of the neighborhood, had not the bed of lignite, w4iich 

 is from five to twelve feet thick, been worked for fuel, dur- 

 ing which operation many oi'ganic remains came to light. 

 Among these are the teeth of Elephas antiquus, determined 

 by Dr. Falconer, and Rhinoceros leptorliinus? (R. megarhinus 

 Christol), the wild bull and red deer (Bos 'primigenius Boj., 

 and Cervus Elaphus L.), the last two determined by Professor 

 Riitimej'er. In the same beds I found many fresh-water 

 shells of the genera Paludina, Limnea, &c., all of living 

 species. The plants named by Professor Heer are also 

 recent, and agree singularly with those of the Cromer buried 

 forest, before described (p. 214). 



Among them are the Scotch and sj^ruce firs, Pinus syl- 

 vestris and Finns Abies, and the buckbean, or Menyanthes 

 trifoliata, &c., besides the common birch and other Euro- 

 pean plants. 



Overlying this lignite are, first, as at Utznach, stratified 

 gravel, not of glacial origin, about thirty feet thick; and, 

 secondly, highest of all, huge angular erratic blocks, clearly 

 indicating the presence of a great glacier, posterior in date to 

 all the organic remains above enumerated. 



If any one of the existing Swiss lakes were now lowered 

 by deepening its outlet, or by raising the higher portion of it 

 relatively to the lower, we should see similar deltas of com- 

 paratively modern date exposed to view, some of them with 



