156 PROF. E. HULL, LL.D., F.R.S,, F.G.S., ON 



" Undoubtedly, the glaciation of the vast island-continent of 

 Greenland, 1,200 miles in extent, north and south, is due to the 

 refrigerating Influences of the great Polar drift of cold water 

 sweeping down its east side, swirling round Cape Farewell, and 

 running up to Holstenborg on the west side. Whilst the icy 

 current coming down Smith Sound plays a similar part on the 

 west side. 



" Now, if we could deflect this Polar current, so that it came 

 down the Baltic, as it probably did. and along the west side of 

 N^orway, would not Scandinavia be as glaciated as Greenland, and 

 England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the Faeroes, much as Spits- 

 bergen is to-day P 



" Again, is there any proof that the glaciation of North America 

 was coincident with the Glacial epoch of Europe ? 



" Most travellers in those regions have pointed to the proofs of 

 remarkable rapid elevation in recent times of the islands of the 

 American Archipelago and of Grinnell Land, where recent shell- 

 beds stand at an elevation of 1,000 feet. 



" If we could again sink the American Archipelago 1,000 feet, 

 the fender or buttress w^hich keeps out the PalaBOcrystic ice would 

 be removed, and that ice would pile up on the shore of the conti- 

 nent of America, much farther south than now, and probably 

 srlaciate it." 



Here Colonel Feildon asks my opinion on the question, 

 whether by the deflection of the north polar current down 

 the Baltic and the west coast of Norway, Scandinavia would 

 be as glaciated as Greenland ? and he points out that this 

 might take place by the submergence of the islands of the 

 American Archipelago which have recently been upraised to 

 the extent of 1,000 feet, as shown by beds of shells. 



The passage of a polar current down the Baltic would 

 require the submergence of Lapland to the extent of over 

 500 feet, a state of things which in all probability formerly 

 existed, and the passage of a north current Avould doubtless 

 have the effect described ; but it is to be observed that the 

 greater part of Greenland lies further north by 10° than that 

 of Scandinavia, the eflect of which would be to cause the 

 climate of the former to be less rigorous under any circum- 

 stances ; and this result would be accentuated by the preva- 

 lent wind-currents. 



