J, Milne — Ice and Ice-work in Newfoundland. 345 



shown, of large areas whicli during long geological periods have been 

 subjected to similar movements — which tracts are, however, separated 

 by lines of weakness — few geologists will now be prepared to dis- 

 pute. And it is to the efforts of nature to repair these lines of weak- 

 ness that the formation of mountain chains must be referred. The 

 mass of folded, crumpled and crystallized rocks formed out of the 

 abnormally thickened strata may indeed be compared to the cicatrix 

 produced by the reparative vital actions around a severe wound ; 

 and we may perhaps go a step further, and regard the volcanic 

 ejections around it as equivalent to the suppuration and discharge 

 which accompanies the determination of the vital energy towards 

 the injured part. May we not even consider this power of repairing 

 external injuries as not less essential to the continued existence of 

 the globe, than it is to the life of the organized beings which exist 

 upon its surface ? 



IT. — Ice and Ice-Work in Newfoundland. 



By John Milne, F.G.S., 



Professor of Geology in the Imperial Mining College, Tokei, Japan. 



[Continued from the July Number, p. 308.) 



Aspect of Newfoundland. — It has been suggested that the so-called 

 glacial effects which are universally seen in temperate, and even in 

 tropical regions, may in many cases have been due to an ocean on 

 which great icebergs floated. These, as they moved from point to 

 point (like huge pepper-castors), strewed broadcast boulders and 

 detrital matter, such as are now to be seen over an area like that of 

 Eussia and parts of North America. The effect of the force of 

 impact of these tremendous masses has also been dwelt on, and the 

 way in which they could grind, smooth down, or rub up the surface 

 of a submerged area, has also often been referred to. 



Should the area thus acted on be a rising one, on its emergence it 

 may show definitely the characters that have been impressed upon 

 it, and these perhaps may in some respects be analogous to those 

 produced b}" land ice. In the explanation of the superficial aspects 

 of a country from some such considerations as these, one man 

 may take his stand upon a glacier, and another upon an iceberg. 

 An iceberg theory has been advanced in the case of Newfoundland 

 as an explanation of the physical features of the island (see Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc, 1874, vol. xxx. p. 722). From the numerous 

 raised beaches containing Mija arenaria and other Atlantic species 

 still living in the surrounding seas, Newfoundland appears to have 

 risen in later geological times. The island itself, its principal bays, 

 its mountains, its lakes and rivers, its lines of igneous protrusions, 

 its ice-grooves and scratches, and the general strike of the rocks, 

 which, as was shown by Jukes, may in part account for the 

 tendencies of the other features, liave all been shown to trend from 

 about 27° E. of North to 27° W. of South. 



These curious coincidences were in part explained by supposing 

 Newfoundland as a rising area submerged 3000 feet beneath its 



