1846.] MURCHISON ON THE SCANDINAVIAN DRIFT. 353 



in Russian Lapland, as well as of Siljestrom in Finmark (if not 

 those of M. Durocher himself), appear to me to negative such 

 a view ; for it has been clearlj'^ shown, that the axis of the Scan- 

 dinavian chain being once passed, the drift has been transported 

 north-westwards, northwards, and even north-eastwards. Nay more : 

 as in reference to the central and southern portions of Sweden, 

 including Finland, &c., all the northern faces of the promonto- 

 ries are worn down where the drift has travelled southwards, so 

 in North Lapland, Finmark, &c., where the drift has been moved 

 northwards (as is proved by the materials), it is the southern faces 

 of the headlands which have been abraded. These facts sufficiently 

 indicate that the drift, however produced, has radiated from the 

 Scandinavian as from other mountain chains. Such being the case, 

 it would be useless to seek for an exact parallelism in the numerous 

 striae which cover any one great portion of this part of the conti- 

 nent. In the region of the present glaciers, the striae, according to 

 M. Durocher, proceed in divergent radii from small centres, just as 

 they do in the Alps or other countries where glaciers exist ; and I 

 am far from wishing to deny, that in certain portions of those high 

 tracts, other striae which are visible where no glaciers now exist 

 may have also resulted from former larger glaciers. 



But even granting this to an extent which M. Durocher, who has 

 examined the localities, does not admit, the survey of Sweden has 

 convinced M. de Verneuil and myself, and M. Durocher entertains 

 the same views, that glaciers cannot by any possibility have caused 

 the phaenomena to which I now wish to direct special attention. A 

 much more extended view must be taken of the operations of na- 

 ture by those who would expound in a rational way these phaeno- 

 mena. When carefully observed and duly considered, I feel, how- 

 ever, persuaded that even the most determined glacialists must 

 admit, that other agents besides solid ice moving over the surface 

 of the earth may have produced some results exactly analogous to 

 those which glaciers now effect ; whilst in developing the facts 

 which have come under my notice in Sweden, I shall be able to 

 show, that, associated with certain features quite undistinguishable 

 from those which are left by the advance of glaciers, the rocks there 

 offer other superficial appearances which are perfectly incompatible 

 with the movement of such bodies. I do not believe, that because 

 it may not be possible to find in existing nature any other agent 

 than ice which leaves behind it these markings, that geologists, 

 whose investigations involve inquiries into the former energies of 

 nature at periods when most of our present continents were under 

 water, are to be debarred from reasoning on ancient evidences, or 

 from appealing to what we firmly believe must have been true an- 

 cient causes, which, however they may at first sight appear difficult 

 to imagine, are not to be left, as Pliny thought of old, " concealed 

 in the majesty of Nature." 



Referring theti to various memoirs of M. Durocher relating to 

 the higher tracts of Norway and the northern parts of Finland not 

 visited by me, and to a note by that author in re}>ly to (Mrtain cri- 



