ON GLACIAL DELFT IN THE NORTH-EASTERN CARPATHIANS. 673 



35. Glacial Drift in tlie North-eastern Carpathians. By R. L. 

 Jack, Esq., F.G.S., and John Horne, Esq., E.G.S., of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of Scotland. (Read June 20, 1877.) 



A. General Introduction, 



While most of the European ranges have been subjected to detailed 

 investigations with the view of determining the existence and 

 sequence of glacial deposits, the Carpathian chain has hitherto 

 escaped any minute examination. Enough has already been accom- 

 plished through the labours of continental observers to justify an 

 attempt to correlate the deposits occurring in other countries with 

 their representatives in Britain. Erom the data already obtained 

 it is obvious that, even in widely separated areas, the physical 

 changes which transpired during the Glacial epoch must have borne 

 a strong resemblance to each other. In the north of Europe there 

 is the clearest evidence for the former extension of the ice ; and 

 even south of the limits of the northern drift the observations 

 already made point to the same conclusion. They prove that, in 

 regions where snow-fields no longer exist, glaciers must have filled 

 the valleys, leaving behind them moraines and erratic blocks as 

 memorials of their presence ; while in those countries where glaciers 

 still hold sway the hills and valleys must have been covered with 

 ice, which ground and polished the slopes and accumulated under- 

 neath a mantle of stony cla} 7 . But on adverting to the evidence 

 regarding the former prevalence of arctic and boreal conditions, it 

 would appear that there is a general uniformity in the succession 

 of deposits belonging to different countries. Not only in Britain, 

 but in Scandinavia and Switzerland, we find deposits of sand, 

 gravel, and lignite containing Mammalian remains and traces of 

 Man, intercalated in the moraine profonde of the old ice-sheets. 

 The inference seems to be that these beds indicate mild periods in 

 the long duration of cold, when the ice retired or altogether dis- 

 appeared. The physical cause of such alternations of climate may 

 long remain a matter of dispute among geologists ; but that the 

 Glacial epoch was not characterized by an unbroken succession of 

 cold conditions must now be considered beyond doubt. 



It is not, therefore, unreasonable to hope that when the great chain 

 of the Carpathians has been examined in detail, it will furnish evi- 

 dence in support of the conclusions already arrived at regarding 

 the oscillations of temperature in the Glacial period. It must be 

 remembered that the altitude of the chain differs widely from that 

 of the Alps ; for even the greatest elevations do not exceed 8000 

 or 9000 feet. But when we consider the enormous dimensions of 

 the old Alpine glaciers during the reign of extreme cold— that the 

 glacier of the Rhone abutted against the range of the Jura, and 

 stranded its boulders as far up the slopes as 3000 feet, and that 



