290 



TEMPERATURE OF THE GLACIAL PERIOD. [Ch. XIII. 



predominated 



• 



podal ice -cap. 











Physicists, moreover, are not yet agreed as to tne exten 

 to which, the waters of the ocean would gravitate toward 



an accumulation of polar ice. We must also take 



3 



such 



into our account the fact, 



i 



planet, but is taken from 







i not borrowed 

 sea by evapo- 



must 



from it of so much 



This depression 



of level would be universal, but in high latitudes it would 

 be counteracted to a certain extent by the gravitation of 



the sea towards the polar ice-caps. On the other hand, 

 the two antipodal ice-caps would, to a certain extent, 

 counteract and neutralise each other's power ; for in propor- 





them 







its level, not only in the equatorial zone, but in the higher 



hemispher 



quant 



also, which during the Glacial Period would be perpetual on 





latitudes 20 



o 



south 



quator, and still more 

 the Himalayas, pan 



have to be allowed for as sources of counter-attraction to the 

 ice at the two poles. When, therefore, the geologist wishes 



mar 



fifty, or several hundred feet above the level of the sea, may 



former 



which caused the land to be submerged for ages, until it re- 



riner 



difficulty of having to contend with all the uncertain data above 

 enumerated. If, on the other hand, he should be inclined to 



submer 



t> 



consequent on the thaw, or the restoration of so much water 

 to the ocean, he will have to consider how large a volume of 



mu 



from 



forests are of species proper to that more northern climate 

 which the former prevalence of so much snow and ice would 

 imply. It would be preposterous to pretend that the sub- 

 mergence of land 1,400 feet high, like that of Moel Tryfaen, 



i 



