HISTORICAL NOTICES. 7 



rational views, and perhaps to prevent an undue reaction 

 in the direction opposite to that lately prevalent. 



I trust I shall not be accused of egotism if I present 

 these moderate views, in the first instance, in the form of 

 extracts from publications dating some of them nearly 

 thirty years ago. 



In a paper published in the " Canadian Naturalist " in 

 1860, and specially devoted to the description of glacial 

 phenomena in Labrador, Maine, etc., the following words 

 occur with reference more particularly to the climate of 

 the Pleistocene, and are here given without alteration.* 



"Everyone knows that the means and extremes of 

 annual temperature differ much on the opposite sides of 

 the Atlantic. The isothermal line of 40, for example, 

 passes from the south side of the gulf of St. Lawrence, 

 skirts Iceland and reaches Europe near Drontheim in 

 Norway. This fact, apparent as the result of observations 

 on the temperature of the land, is equally evidenced by 

 the inhabitants and physical phenomena of the sea. A 

 large proportion of the shell-fish inhabiting the gulf of St. 

 Lawrence and the coast thence to Cape Cod, occur on 

 both sides of the Atlantic, but not in the same latitudes. 

 The marine fauna of Cape Cod is parallel in its prevalence 

 of boreal forms with that of the south of Norway. In 

 like manner the descent of icebergs from the north, the 

 freezing of bays and estuaries, the drifting and pushing of 

 stones and boulders by ice, are witnessed on the American 

 coast in a manner not paralleled in corresponding lati- 

 tudes in Europe. It follows from this that a collection of 

 shells from any given latitude on the coasts of Europe or 



* Where anything new is introduced into these extracts, it is placed 

 in brackets, thus, [ . . . ] 



