20 THK ICK A(iK IN CANADA. 



luiUter of <,'iiitifi('iition to iiu! to liinl, in coMiicciion with 

 this, that I'cseiirchcs in other r(!<,'ions an; ra|»i(lly lifiidinj,' 

 to overthrow extromo views on the subject, and to restore 

 this (lepurtnient of <^<!olo^fi('al (lyiiaiiiics more nearly to 

 th(! (loniaiii of oi'diiiary I'xislini,' causes. \VhyiM|>er, 

 Boiiiiey, and other Ali)ine e.\i»h>rer.s, have al>ly sui)i)orted 

 in Kn,i,dand tlie eonchision which, after a visit to Switzer- 

 land in 1<S(),"), 1 vi'ntured to allirni here, that the erosi\'e 

 j)ower of uiaciers is \-ery inconsiderable. Mr. Milne 

 Home, Mr. Mclnlosh, and otheis, have comltale(l the 

 ])re\alcnl notions of a, ^-eneral glacier in Kni^dand ami 

 Scotland. Mr. -lames (leikie, a Icadin,;.,' advoi-ate of land 

 glaciers, has l)een compelliMl to admit that marine beds 

 are interstralitied with the true boulder (day of Scotland, 

 and eoiise(iuently to demand a succession of elevations 

 and depressions in ortlcr to ,ni\'e iiny colour to the theory 

 of a ueiu'ral u'lacier. The idea of ulacier action as means 

 of aecountin_i[; for the drifts of Central lMiro))e and of 

 Hra/il seems to Ite u'cnerally abandoned. Lastly, in a 

 recent nnndicr of the "American Journal of Science," J'rof. 

 Dana has admitted the necessit,y, in order to account for 

 land ,nlaciation of the hills of Xew Kn^'land [by a conti- 

 nental <i'lacier], of supixisinu; a mountain rant^e or table 

 land of at U^ast (1,000 feet in heiiiht, to have existed 

 between the St. Lawrence and Hudson's IJay, while in 

 addition to the imaginary X. W. t!^ S. K. glacier, Howing 

 from this innnense and improbable mass, there must have 

 been a transverse glacier running JKMieath it up the valley 

 of the St. Lawrence. Such demands amount, in my 

 iudirment, to a virtual abandonment of the theorv of other 

 than large local glaciers in America in the pleistocene 

 period. Thus there are cheering indications that the 

 world-enveloping glaciei', which has so long spread its 



