AMERICAN GEOLOGY EATONIAN ERA, 1820-1829. 257 



and that this was occasioned by the sun deviating from the ecliptic, he 

 proceeded to explain in his own way how this might be brought about, 

 though acknowledging that no positive testimony could possibly be 

 adduced to substantiate the fact. 



Having admitted the possibility of the earth's changing its position 

 so that the sun would pass "immediately. over the two poles upon an 

 unknown meridian.'" he showed that there would then result a rapid 

 dissolution of the existing ice caps, such as would yield an ample sup- 

 ply of material, it. being only necessary to give it direction. Consid- 

 ering as essential to the problem only the northern hemisphere, he 

 remarked that from this polar cap there are but two outlets — the one 

 into the Pacific Ocean through the narrow Bering Strait and the other 

 through the wider channel between Greenland and Lapland into the 

 Atlantic. Hence, when the melting ensued, by far the larger vol- 

 ume of water passed into the latter ocean. 



No sooner was this operation established, ami this accession of strength and power 

 thrown into the Atlantic Ocean in particular, than its tide be^an to rise above its 

 common limits accompanied by a consequent current, both constantly increasing, 

 the one in height and the other in rapidity, proportioned to the increase of power at 

 the focus. * * * At the commencement of this frightful drama the current, it is 

 highly probable, was divided by the craggy heights of Spitsbergen and a part thrown 

 into the White Sea, while the other was thrown back upon the eastern ami southern 

 coast of Greenland, and from thence in a southwestern direction until it struck the 

 southeastern coast of Labrador, along which it swept through- the straits of Belle 

 Isle, across Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and along the Atlantic coast into the Gulf 

 of Mexico. * In a short space of time, the southern and eastern coast of 



Labrador, over which this current was urged with increasing force, was desolated. 

 The soil * * was hurled adrift and * * * carried across the country into 



the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and across a part of New England i»to the sea, or general 

 current of the ocean. Continuing to rise, the waters swept across Davis Strait and 

 rolled their tumultuous surges into Hudson Bay, embracing the whole coast of Lab- 

 rador, while the unequal current of the St. Lawrence was forced hack and upward to 

 its parent source. * * * 



At length the floods of the pole forming a junction with Barnns Bay and the Arc- 

 tic Sea, defying all bounds, overran their ancient limits and hurled their united 

 forces, in dread confusion, across the bleak regions of the north to consummate the 

 awful scene. Thus lakes and seas uniting formed one common ocean which was 

 propelled with inconceivable rapidity across the continent between the great chain 

 of mountains into the Gulf of Mexico and probably over the unpeopled wilds of 

 South America into the Southern Ocean. Fulfilled in this way were the awful 

 denunciations of an offended God, by the sure extermination of every beast of the 

 field and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the face of the earth. 



The argument used to substantiate or in favor of the probability of 

 the above causes can not be dwelt upon here. But to these causes he 

 believed to be due not merely the alluvial deposits of the coastal plain, 

 but as well the barrenness of soil of the rocks in Labrador and the 

 northeastern portion of the continent, and also the general phenomena 

 of the glacial drift, the bowlders of the latter being conceived as 

 transported by floating ice. 



NAT MUS 1904 17 



