220 GLACIAL HISTORY. 



was most agreeably surprised when,, for the first time, he found 

 on the Bernina a minute insect (Leiochiton arcticum) which is 

 widely diffused in Finland and Lapland ; and at Fetau he met 

 with an elegant beetle (Cymindis angularis) which at the present 

 time is only known in Lapland. Lastly, in 1849, near Samaden 

 and Bevers, Prof. Heer discovered a splendid moth (Euprepia 

 flava, Amstein) which also occurs in Siberia. Such instances 

 form a few novel links in a complete chain of phenomena, the 

 explanation of which is to be sought in the Glacial epoch. 



All these facts leave no room to doubt that a great diminution 

 of temperature occurred in the drift-period, and consequently 

 that the glaciers moved from the Alpine zone, and invaded the 

 plain. At present only a few Alpine and northern animals and 

 plants have been found fossil in the drift ; but the constitution 

 of the flora and fauna of Switzerland, and of the northern zone, 

 confirm the conclusions founded upon the dispersion of the 

 Alpine rocks. In connexion with the facts already noticed, 

 they furnish the means of forming a distinct conception of the 

 landscape of the period. The plate at the commencement of the 

 present volume, " Zurich in the Glacial Epoch/' is intended to 

 show the appearance of the immediate vicinity of Zurich at the 

 close of the second Glacial period. The glacier is in retreat. 

 The chains of hills formerly covered with ice are once more free 

 and 'clothed with forests of conifers : the surface of the lake is 

 still occupied by the glacier, upon which run two long lateral 

 moraines. The northern end of the glacier is torn and split by 

 crevasses ; and numerous fragments of ice have broken loose and 

 float towards the land. The foreground is formed by the ter- 

 minal moraine, vast blocks of which have been brought by the 

 glacier to their present position. They are scantily clothed 

 with dwarf pines and Alpine alders. A family of marmots is 

 sporting about among the blocks ; on the right appear some 

 mammoths, and further on- a troop of reindeer are going to 

 drink. In the background the snow-white Alps are visible, 

 from the Glarnisch to the Windgelle ; these mountains supply 

 the sources of the glacier which moves down from them into the 

 plain. 



If a Glacial epoch of this kind passed over the hemisphere in 

 which Europe is situated, it must have left traces of its occur- 



