﻿Trof. Milne — Across Europe and Asia. 465 



water. As additional evidence to these conclusions, I may add from 

 my observations, first, the finding of plant-remains on the Obi at 

 Kolpashovoe, and, secondly, the fact that the sand and loam when 

 examined microscopically show a sharp angularity, characteristic of 

 river-sand rather than of those sands which had been washed and 

 rounded in the sea. The samples of sand and loam which I collected 

 came from districts far apart, and therefore may be taken as repre- 

 senting the character of an area rather than that of a single spot. 



As culminating evidence in support of this theory, Mr. Belt seems 

 to have found, at Pavlodav, "the ancient bed-rock over which the 

 ice must have moved if it existed, and saw the crushed and shattered 

 surface and the fragments pushed up into the overlying silt." Now 

 this is an interesting discovery, because it is so strange that Mr. 

 Belt in his flying visit should have been so fortunate as to have met 

 with the remains of glacier action, whereas geologists who have 

 been working in these latitudes of Siberia, especially near Irkutsk. 

 for the last ten years, where glaciers were more likely to have 

 occurred if an ice-sheet ever advanced so far as Mr. Belt supposes, 

 have not yet been able to find any signs of ice-action greater than 

 those which are annually produced by the freezing of the river. 



Also, if such a cold period had existed, ice-rafts must have scoured 

 the sides of this great lake, and carried off boulders from its shores 

 to deposit them on its bed. But ice-markings, such as are produced 

 upon every coast invaded by floating-ice, I have not seen nor heard 

 of, neither are the boulders to be found, — the country is, in fact, as 

 I have pointed out, singularly destitute of stones, antl whilst travel- 

 ling more than 1500 miles in parts where I had many opportunities 

 of seeing sections, I do not remember seeing even a single pebble, 

 although I looked for them. Erman noticed large fragments of 

 rock imbedded in clay at Samarova, but they are probably not very 

 numerous, as I passed through that district without observing them. 



Until the markings of old glaciers and coast-ice, together with 

 erratic boulders and allied phenomena, which would be necessary 

 adjuncts to the invasion of a polar ice-cap; and the formation of an 

 inland sea, are shown really to exist, or else have some explanation 

 found for their absence, it would, I think, be better to pause before 

 accepting the idea of an invading ice-cap. Mr. Campbell, the well- 

 known aixthor of " Frost and Fire," argues that if polar ice-caps ever 

 existed, their markings ought to be found in all meridians alike, and 

 that they should approximately be so appears to be a reasonable 

 argument. What is more, if we follow out such an argument as 

 that of Mr. Croll, who shows us that in bygone times there was a 

 glacial period produced in that hemisphere whose winter occurred 

 in aphelion indirectly, owing to its having been at that time further 

 from the sun than it is at present, we must remember that the same 

 sei'ies of induced causes would also produce a general lowering of 

 temperature over that half of the world whose crown had been 

 capped by ice. This being the case, glaciers and other forms of ice 

 existing in latitudes below the crown of ice ought to have been 

 considerably augmented, whilst at other points still more removed 



DECADE II.— TOL. IV. — NO. X. 30 



