54 APPLICATION OF FACTS REGARDING ICE-ACTION. 



have arrived at from a careful study of this question. Little doubt 

 remains in my mind as to its correctness. The only serious reason 

 for hesitating to ask the reader to accept this elucidation of the 

 subject is, that it would appear that for some indefinite period 

 there has been a gradual elevation of most of the circumpolar 

 region going on. The facts in regard to this have been carefully 

 collated by Mr. H. Howorth, 1 though it must be acknowledged 

 with apparently a foregone conclusion, or at least a strong bias to 

 the doctrine he has espoused, and to his memoir the reader can be 

 safely recommended. One fact I may mention, which I am not 

 aware has been noticed by Mr. Howorth. A few years ago the 

 Norwegian walrus hunter discovered a group of small islets north 

 of Novai Semliii. They were merely sandy patches scattered with 

 boulders dropped from icebergs which had at one time floated over 

 them, raised but a few feet above the sea — 



" . . . . islands salt aud bare, 

 The haunt of seals and ores and searnews' clang." 



On some of the islets — notably on Hellwald's and Brown's — were 

 found West Indian fruits washed up by the Gulf Stream ; hence 

 they were named " The Gulf Stream Islands." Yet only about 

 two centuries ago the Dutch took soundings on the very spot where 

 these islands have since been gradually raised above the sea. It is 

 also said that the whale (Balcena mysticetus) has left the Spitzbergen 

 Sea, owing to the waters having got too shallow for it, on account 

 of the gradual rise of the bottom. On Franz Joseph's Land there 

 are also raised beaches. The whole question is an important and 

 interesting one for the naturalists of the present Arctic Expedition 

 to attempt the solution of. Here I may point out what seems to be 

 a fallacy in the reasoning of those authors who write about the 

 denuding powers of rivers, and calculate that such and such a 

 country will be overwhelmed by the sea in so many millions of 

 years. Whatever the land loses by denudation the sea gains ; and 

 therefore the two forces keep pace with each other. We thus see 

 in Greenland two appearances : (1) In the interior what Scotland 

 once was ; (2) on the coast what Scotland now is. 



7. Application of the Facts regarding Arctic Ice- action as ex- 

 planatory of Glaciation and other Ice-remains in Britain. 



In the paper referred to, 2 and in the geological portion of the 



1 ' Journ. of the Roy. Geog. Soc.,' vol. xliii. (1873). p. 240. 



2 'Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,' vol. xxvii. p. 671 ; also 'Popular Science Review,' 

 August, 1871, and April, 1875 ; aud more popularly in Kiugsley's ' Town 

 Geology,' pp. 48-52. 



