206 matured 



ing, and are destined eventually to entirely 

 disappear, unless there is a change in meteoro- 

 logical conditions, which some scientists claim 

 will be the case if we only wait long enough, 

 when again all this northern country will be 

 covered with a great ice sheet. There is no 

 doubt in regard to the facts concerning a 

 glacial period that must have existed in the 

 ages past. To anyone who has made a study 

 of the subject there is not wanting abundant 

 evidence to prove that this northern country 

 was at one time enveloped with a great ice 

 sheet of enormous thickness. The conditions 

 that existed to bring about such a state of 

 things have been the subject of much specula- 

 tion by philosophers, but no one, as yet, has 

 arrived at any very satisfactory conclusion. 

 Many theories have been advanced, some of 

 them not worth considering, while others have 

 many things that give them a show of plausi- 

 bility. But all of them have what is said of 

 the Darwinian theory, " a missing link." It 

 will be interesting, however, and also instruct- 

 ive, to know what can be said in favor of a set 

 of conditions that would produce such momen- 

 tous results. 



