THE GLACIAL PERIOD. 207 



CHAPTER XI. 



the glacial period — Continued. 



Ancient glaciers of north and south sides of the Alps, of the Jura Mountains, of 

 the Black Forest, of the Vosges, of the Carpathians, of the Ural, of the 

 Pyrenees and the Cantabrian Mountains, of Central and Southern Spain, of 

 Corsica, of the Apuan Alps, of the Caucasus, of the Lebanon, of the Atlas 

 Mountains — Erratics in the Azores — Limestone-breccias of Gibraltar — Brec- 

 cias, etc., of Malta — Loam with flints of Northern France — "Head" of 

 maritime districts of the Channel area — Stanniferous gravels of Cornwall — ■ 

 Glacial phenomena of North America — Angular earthy debris of North 

 Carolina — -Volume of water discharged from ancient glaciers — Quantity of 

 mud in water coming from glaciers — Origin of loss and loamy deposits of 

 Rhine, Danube, etc., of Central Europe — Origin of the Tchernozem or 

 "black-earth" of Southern Russia — Objections to Baron Richthofen's loss- 

 theory — Summary of conditions during Glacial Period. 



It has long been a familiar fact that the glaciers of Switzerland 

 formerly assumed gigantic proportions, and the first to recognise 

 this was Venetz, 1 a Swiss engineer, whose observations date back 

 so far as 1821, thus making him the father, as it were, of glacial 

 geology. He was followed by a long line of illustrious men — 

 Charpentier, 2 Agassiz, 3 Desor, 4 Guyot, 5 Ch. Martins, 6 Escher von 



1 BibliotJieque Universelle de Geneve, t. xxi. ; Denkschr. der Schw. Ges. fur 

 die gessamt. Naturwissensch., Bd. i., 1833. See also an interesting posthumous 

 paper, " Memoire sur l'extension des anciens glaciers," etc., Nouveaux Memoires 

 de la Soc. Helv. des Sci. Nat., 1861, vol. xxiii. 



2 Essai sur les Glaciers et sur le Terrain Erratique du Rhdne, 1831. 



3 Etudes sur les Glaciers, chap. xvii. 



4 C'omptes Rendus de V Acad, des Sci., t. xiv. (1842), p. 412; Bull. Soc. Giol. 

 France, 1846, t. iii. p. 528 ; Ibid., 1851, t. viii. p. 64. 



6 Bull. Soc. des Sciences Nat. de Neuchdtel, 1847, t. i. pp. 477, 507. 

 6 Edin. New Phil. Journ., 1847, vol. xliii. p. 54. 



