THE GLACIAL PERIOD. 213 



erratics are so numerous and conspicuous that they long ago 

 attracted the attention of travellers. Perhaps as striking as 

 these glacial phenomena are those described by M. Desor as 

 occurring in the Maritime Alps and the neighbourhood of 

 Nice. 1 And equally remarkable are the relics of the Ice Age 

 in the island of Corsica, which were first noticed by Collomb 

 nearly thirty years ago. 2 In the valley of the Tavignano he 

 observed the moraine, 'profonde, of an extinct glacier, which, 

 as the nature of the stones in the moraine showed, had de- 

 scended from the slopes of Monte Eotonda (2763 metres). The 

 moraine was deeply trenched and denuded, and occurred at a 

 height of 430 metres. Six years later Mr. Pumpelly discovered 

 polished rock-surfaces and roches moutonne'es, together with large 

 erratics and terminal moraines, in the valleys coming down from 

 the mountain of Baglia Orba (2650 metres). The lateral moraines 

 rose to a height above the bottoms of the valleys of 100 feet, and 

 the frontal moraines were some 40 or 50 feet high. 3 Again, M. 

 Tabarids de Grandsaignes detected moraines and huge erratics in 

 the region of Monte Cinto, which testified to the former presence 

 of two glaciers. 4 



Seeing that Corsica has thus supported its snow-fields and 

 glaciers, we might have expected that the Apennines could 

 hardly fail to exhibit similar traces. A number of years ago 

 (1866) Professor Cocchi stated his belief that glaciers had 

 formerly existed in the Apuan Alps, 5 and their moraines have 

 been more recently described by Stopanni as being well 



1 Compt. Rend, de VAcad. des Sci., t. lxxxviii. (1879) p. 760; see also " Sur 

 les Terrains Glaciaires Diluviens et Pliocenes des Environs de Nice : " Bull. Soc. 

 Nicoise des Sci. Nat. et Hist., 1879. 



2 Bull. Soc. Giol. France, 2 e Ser. t. xi. p. 66. 



3 Ibid., 2° Ser. t. xvii. p. 78. 



4 Ibid. , 2 e Ser. t. xxvi. p. 270. "Waltershausen notes the occurrence on the 

 west coast of Elba of fragments of a peculiar kind of gabbro, which does not be- 

 long to that island. Were these brought thither by tidal action from Corsica, or 

 could they possibly have been transported by floating-ice ?— See Nat. Verh. Roll. 

 Maat. Weten. Haarlem, Dl. xxiii. 



5 Atti Soc. Ital. Sci. Nat., t. ii. (1866); Boll. R. Com. Gcol. d'ltalia (1872), 

 t. iii. p. 187. 



