Glacier Garden, Lucerne 



(Gletschergarten). 



Explanation of the Geological Part of the Glacier Garden 



by Dr. Albert Heim 



Professor of Geology at the University and Polytechnic School of Zurich. 



1 11. These are remains dating from the period of 

 the glaciers, a period in the history of our globe, which takes 

 as back far beyond the oldest traditions and historical re- 

 cords. In those days, almost the whole of Switzerland and 

 indeed the greatest part of the northern hemisphere were 

 buried under immense masses of ice. as geologists can 

 now prove with the greatest certainty, with here and there 

 an oasis inhabited by animals long ago extinct. Before 

 that time we have a period when ocean covered the land. 

 and an age when half-tropical heat produced tropical 

 forests in Switzerland. 



Up to the year 1 872 these marvels of nature lay still 

 hidden under the detritus (moraines) carried along, cen- 

 turies ago, by the moving Reuss Glacier, and under the 

 humus (soil) of a green meadow. 



A mere chance (see page 6) led to the discovery of a 

 Glacier-hole. Researches were then continued till the year 

 1875 and, after the moraine or detritus had all been remo- 

 ved, wonderful erosions made by nature were discov- 

 ered, as well as petrifactions of tropical animals and 

 plants, which the visitor will best inspect in the follow- 

 ing order: 



IXo. 1 is one of the gigantic Pots or Glacier-holes, 



with erosions caused by the glacier. They owe their exist- 



