244 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 
At first sight the former view appears the more reasonable, and 
to those who have never studied the phenomena accompanying 
interglacial deposits, it naturally has a special attraction. Itis so 
simple, and so much in accordance with what is actually known 
of modern glacial action, that those who hold it may be excused 
for wondering why it is not generally accepted. Weare referred 
to the glaciers of New Zealand which descend into the region of 
tree-ferns, and to certain glaciers of the Himalaya and Alaska 
with their tree-covered moraines, and are asked to consider how 
readily in those regions vegetable débris may become entombed 
in glacial accumulations. But there is no need to go so far 
abroad for similar phenomena. Even in the Alps in our day 
glaciers have advanced and buried trees and vegetable soil under 
their moraines. Unfortunately, however, none of these cases 
helps us to account for the interglacial beds of temperate Europe. 
If the latter never yielded other than Arctic-alpine plants some- 
thing might be said for the explanation in question. During the 
climax of the glacial period, when the Scandinavian “ inland-ice”’ 
invaded the low grounds of middle Europe, those low grounds 
supported an Arctic-alpine flora. It is obvious, therefore, that 
when temporary retreats and advances of the ice-front took place, 
the only relics of plant-life that were likely to be preserved in 
glacial deposits would be Arctic forms. But although such are 
not wanting at certain horizons in the glacial series, yet the most 
conspicuous interglacial beds are charged with the relics of a 
flora and fauna which could not possibly have flourished in the 
immediate vicinity of a great ice-sheet. Indeed, the interglacial 
beds, traced at intervals from Holstein through the heart of 
Germany to central Russia, contain a flora indicative of more 
genial conditions than are now met with in the same regions. 
One may feel quite sure that when the low grounds of middle 
Europe were clothed with such a flora, and tenanted by elephants - 
and other large herbivora, no great Scandinavian ice-sheet could 
have existed. There is no reason to doubt, in short, that the 
snow-fields and glaciers of interglacial Europe were not more 
prominent than those of the Europe of today. And yet the 
