342 alti:i:nate glacial tliuods chap. xl 



many clost'ly-allicd crustaceans (as described in Dana's admir- 

 able work), of some fish and other marine animals, in the Med- 

 iterranean and in the seas of Japan — these two areas being 

 now completely separated by the breadth of a whole continent 

 and by a wide space of ocean. 



These cases of close relationship in species either now or 

 formerly inhabiting the seas on the eastern and western shores 

 of North America, the Mediterranean, and Japan, and the tem- 

 perate lands of North America and Europe, are inexplicable 

 on the theory of creation. AVc cannot maintain that such spe- 

 cies have been created alike, in correspondence with the neai'- 

 ly similar physical conditions of the areas ; for if we compare, 

 for instance, certain parts of South America with j^arts of 

 South Africa or Australia, Ave see countries closely similar in 

 all their j^hysical conditions, hut with inhabitants utterly dis- 

 similar. 



Alternate Glacial Periods of the Korth and South. 



But we must return to our more immediate subject. I am 

 convinced that Forbes's view may be largely extended. In 

 Europe we meet with the plainest evidence of the Glacial pe- 

 riod, from the Avcstcrn shores of Britain to the Ural range, and 

 southward to the Pyrenees. We may infer, from the frozen 

 mammals and nature of the mountain vegetation, that Siberia 

 was similarly aflected. In the Lebanon, according to Dr. 

 Hooker, perpetual snow formerly covered the central axis, and 

 fed glaciers which rolled 4,000 feet down its valleys. 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 gigantic ancient moraines. Southward 

 of the Asiatic Continent, on the opposite side of the equator, 

 we now know, from the excellent researches of Dr. J. Haast 

 and Dr. Hector, that immense glaciers formerly descended to 

 a low level in New Zealand ; and the same plants foimd by 

 Dr. Hooker on wideh'-separated mountains in this island tell 

 the same story of a former cold period. From facts commimi- 

 catcd to me by tlie Rev. W. B. Clarke, it appears also that 

 there are traces of former glacial action on the mountains of 

 the southeastern corner of Australia. 



Looking to America: in the northern half, ice-born frag- 

 ments of rock have been observed on the eastern side of the 

 oontinent, as far south as kit. 3G°-37°, and on the shores of the 



