266 RECAP 1 TULA TION chap. 



Recapitulation. — I will recapitulate the principal facts with 

 regard to the climate, ice-action, and organic productions of the 

 southern hemisphere, transposing the places in imagination to 

 Europe, with which we are so much better acquainted. Then, 

 near Lisbon, the commonest sea -shells, namely, three species 

 of Oliva, a Voluta, and Terebra, would have a tropical character. 

 In the southern provinces of France, magnificent forests, entwined 

 by arborescent grasses and with the trees loaded with parasitical 

 plants, would hide the face of the land. The puma and the jaguar 

 would haunt the Pyrenees. In the latitude of Mont Blanc, but 

 on an island as far westward as central North America, tree-ferns 

 and parasitical Orchideae would thrive amidst the thick woods. 

 Even as far north as central Denmark humming-birds would be 

 seen fluttering about delicate flowers, and parrots feeding amidst 

 the evergreen woods ; and in the sea there we should have a 

 Voluta, and all the shells of large size and vigorous growth. 

 Nevertheless, on some islands only 360 miles northward of our 

 new Cape Horn in Denmark, a carcass buried in the soil (or 

 if washed into a shallow sea, and covered up with mud) would 

 be preserved perpetually frozen. If some bold navigator 

 attempted to penetrate northward of these islands, he would run 

 a thousand dangers amidst gigantic icebergs, on some of which 

 he would see great blocks of rock borne far away from their 

 original site. Another island of large size in the latitude of 

 southern Scotland, but twice as far to the west, would be 

 " almost wholly covered with everlasting snow," and would 

 have each bay terminated by ice -cliffs, whence great masses 

 would be yearly detached : this island would boast only of 

 a little moss, grass, and burnet, and a titlark would be its only 

 land inhabitant. From our new Cape Horn in Denmark, a 

 chain of mountains, scarcely half the height of the Alps, would 

 run in a straight line due southward ; and on its western flank 

 every deep creek of the sea, or fiord, would end in " bold and 

 astonishing glaciers." These lonely channels would frequently 

 reverberate with the falls of ice, and so often would great 

 waves rush along their coasts ; numerous icebergs, some as 

 tall as cathedrals, and occasionally loaded with " no inconsider- 

 able blocks of rock," would be stranded on the outlying islets ; 

 at intervals violent earthquakes would shoot prodigious masses 

 of ice into the waters below. Lastly, some Missionaries 



