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Ch. X.] 



ice-action in the eocene period. 



211 



climate, is one of the most perplexing enigmas which the 

 i-eolooist has yet been called upon to solve. It would per- 



o 



8 



haps be most in accordance with existing analogies to sup- 

 pose a mountainous island occupying the site of the Austrian 

 and Swiss Alps from which glaciers descended to the sea. 

 For in the southern part of New Zealand, between latitudes 

 43° and 44° S. in the middle island, glaciers coming from 

 Mount Cook, the loftiest mountain of a snow-covered chain, 

 reach to within 500 feet of the sea, and the same region is 

 inhabited not only by tree-ferns but by an Areca palm. 

 These plants of tropical aspect are now seen nourishing in 

 this district, very near to moraines and angular fragments 

 of stone recently brought down by ice from the higher 

 regions. 



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