184 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



odd miles further on, and it was over three thousand feet thick 

 where it reached the Jura. 



These were the facts which I had observed. Well, it occurred 

 to me that it was impossible that these facts should have been 

 brought about without a change in the climate of the earth ; 

 without an extraordinary change in the condition of the temper- 

 ature of Europe, at least ; and I set out to ascertain, within 

 these limits, the changes which took place. These evidences of 

 the gradual extension of the glaciers had only been traced within 

 the borders of Switzerland. Now was the time, I thought, to 

 ascertain whether any evidence of glaciers existed beyond those 

 borders. I at once went to 'England to seek for the marks of 

 ancient glaciers. When I arrived there, in 1840, every geolo- 

 gist laughed at me, said I was on a wild-goose chase, and dis- 

 countenanced my pursuit as a chimerical one. One geologist, 

 however, who had confidence in my methods of observation and 

 appreciated my purposa, Dr. Buckland, said he would accom- 

 pany me to Scotland, where he was better acquainted than I, as 

 a foreigner, was, and we went on together ; and there, in the 

 first valley to which we penetrated, we found, according to the 

 prediction I had made from looking at the Alps, moraines across 

 the valley, the sides of the valley polished, and every sign of 

 the former presence of glaciers, as within the Alps now. Thus 

 . appeared the evidence that the change of climate had not only 

 occurred in Central Europe, but that there had been a general 

 change of temperature throughout Europe. Soon after that, I 

 came to this country, and as soon as I arrived at Halifax, I ran 

 away from the steamer to a hill near by, and there I saw the 

 same marks of the existence of glaciers, — these smooth surfaces, 

 these grooves and these furrows on the rock, and that peculiar 

 drift, with all its marks ; so that I became convinced that the 

 same changes must have taken place here, and that all this drift 

 must have been accumulated where it is by an agency similar to 

 that which no\v-a-days produces similar accumulations, which I 

 have no doubt to be the glaciers. 



In a full presentation of this subject, I shall attempt to 

 remove the slight objections that arise against this or that inter- 

 pretation of the phenomena. I believe I could do it easily, but 

 time will not allow me to enter into these details. I might 

 attempt to say something concerning the causes of these great 



