Chap. XII.] IN THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 159 



extended. In Europe we meet with the plainest 

 evidence of the Glacial period, from the western shores 

 of Britain to the Oural range, and southward to the 

 Pyrenees. We may infer from the frozen mammals 

 and nature of the mountain vegetation, that Siberia was 

 similarly affected. In the Lebanon, according to Dr. 

 Hooker, perpetual snow formerly covered the central 

 axis, and fed glaciers which rolled 4000 feet down the 

 valleys. The same observer has recently found great 

 moraines at a low level on the Atlas range in IST. Africa. 

 Along the Himalaya, at points 900 miles apart, glaciers 

 have left the marks of their former low descent ; and 

 in Sikkim, Dr. Hooker saw maize growing on ancient 

 and gigantic moraines. Southward of the Asiatic con- 

 tinent, on the opposite side of the equator, we know, 

 from the excellent researches of Dr. J. Haast and Dr. 

 Hector, that in ISTew Zealand immense glaciers formerly 

 descended to a low level ; and the same plants found 

 by Dr. Hooker on widely separated mountains in this 

 island tell the same story of a former cold period. 

 From facts communicated to me by the Eev. W. B. 

 Clarke, it appears also that there are traces of former 

 glacial action on the mountains of the south-eastern 

 corner of Australia. 



Looking to America ; in the northern half, ice-borne 

 fragments of rock have been observed on the eastern 

 side of the continent, as far south as lat. 36^-37°, and 

 on the shores of the Pacific, where the climate is now 

 so different, as far south as lat. 46°. Erratic boulders 

 have, also, been noticed on the Ptocky Mountains. In 

 the Cordillera of South America, nearly under the 

 equator, glaciers once extended far below their present 

 level In Central Chile I examined a vast mound of 



