﻿Prof. Millie — Across Europe and Asia. 297 



whelmed many dwellings and whole forests. After it had melted, 

 many stones and blocks were found piled in great quantities upon 

 the ground. 



The existence of blocks at heights considerably above the positions 

 from which they originated, of which there are many remarkable 

 esamjDles in Sweden, is another phenomenon which points to the 

 action of coast-ice upon a rising area for its explanation. 



Huge glaciers and ice-caps, together with subsidences and eleva- 

 tions, explain many local phenomena which the agent I have chosen 

 Avould by itself be incapable of giving a direct answer to. Biit it 

 must be remembered that, on the other hand, coast ice acting on a 

 rising area offers explanations to other questions, as in the case of 

 boulders raised to positions above the rock from which they were 

 derived, where glaciers and ice are comparatively incapable of 

 furnishing an answer, so that the relative merits of these two agents 

 are to some extent divided. 



The abrading action of coast-ice on a rising area is an undoubted 

 fact, and one that is now actively going on before our eyes. Slight 

 physical changes in past geological times may have so intensified it 

 that its effects were to be seen as far south in the Old World as they 

 are now in the New World. Huge glaciers and ice-caps, on the 

 other hand, are phenomena whose existence can only be established 

 by hard fighting. 



Admitting the excentricity of the earth's orbit and other cosmical 

 changes, Arago denied that ice-caps would result, Herschel barely 

 admitted their possibility, whilst other astronomers, to whom geolo- 

 gists look as to the last peg upon which they can hang theii* hopes, 

 are unceasingly occupied in one controversy or another. This being 

 the case, so far as the origin of the agent with which we deal is .con- 

 cerned, coast-ice must come prominently'' to the fore. Not only upon 

 such a point as this, but also if we were to consider the general de- 

 vastating influence which would result from anything like a universal 

 covering of ice in our northern regions, we again find ourselves face 

 to face with difficulties, the explanation of which would not be called 

 foi", if we are content to extend our ideas respecting the efficacy of 

 coast-ice upon a rising area. 



In conclusion, I maj say that I feel convinced that Coast Ice has 

 done and is doing much towards the modelling of rising areas, but 

 how far this has extended 3'et needs investigation. In bye-gone 

 times the climate was colder than it is now, and coast-ice extended 

 farther south than it does at present. During this period many 

 glaciers were increased, and many, especially in the higher regions, 

 were called into existence ; but that these ever filled oceans and 

 covered continents, I do not see the necessity of supposing, unless it 

 be to create materials for amazement and debate. 



{To be continued in our next Number.y 



