736 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 



glacial beds, an "upper" till is sometimes seen to be distinctly uncon- 

 formable on a "lower," the relations being such as to indicate that the 

 lower was exposed for considerable periods, and subject to extensive 

 erosion, before the upper was deposited on it. This relationship does 

 not necessarily indicate great recession of the ice between the times of 

 deposition of two bodies of till. So far as the physical relations are 

 concerned, the upper body of till might be the work of an advancing 

 ice sheet which had previously retreated but a short distance, but 

 which remained long in retreat. 



It is surely most significant that the same general conclusions con- 

 cerning the multiplicity of ice epochs are reached, whatever part of 

 the continent be examined, provided it be within the glaciated area. 

 Thus in Northern Norway, after an epoch of glaciation there appears 

 to have been an epoch of submergence until the sea stood 63 meters 

 higher than now. Then the land rose so that the sea stood about 35 

 meters higher than now. Then followed another epoch of glaciation. 

 Between the deposits of these glaciations there are marine beds con- 

 taining fossils. In Southern Sweden there are non-glacial fossil-bear- 

 ing beds overlain and underlain by ice deposits. In Schleswig and 

 the Danish Islands there are similar beds in similar relations. Of the 

 eighteen species found in these beds, eleven have a southern range, 

 four have a wide range north and south, while three species only are 

 distinctly northern. Again in Eastern Holstein, and on the islands 

 of Rligen and Bornholm, there are similar beds, similarly situated. 



The interglacial beds are best developed in Eastern and Western 

 Prussia, where they are of greater thickness, and occupy greater areas 

 than elsewhere. They include sand, peat, etc. Some of them are 

 marine, while some are of fresh-water origin. They have yielded many 

 fossils. The general facies of their molluscan faunas, both marine 

 and fresh water, denotes a temperate climate. All the marine molluscs 

 are North Sea forms, and still live in the Kattegat. Most of them are 

 now living in the western Baltic. The testimony of the fossil land 

 mammals confirms that of the molluscan faunas as to the temperate 

 climate of the continent between successive glaciations. 



Considered as a whole, the character of the "interglacial " fossil beds 

 of Northern Europe is such as to indicate that if they belong to one 

 epoch, that epoch must have been one of considerable length and com- 

 plexity. Interglacial peat beds in Holstein sometimes alternate with 

 sand, and contain floras which denote considerable changes of climate, 



