373 



IV. TKANSLATIONS AND NOTICES 



OF 



GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



I. On the Boulder Formation and on Diluvial Scratches in 

 Denmark and part of Sweden. By G. Forchhammer. 



( Continued from pago 272.) 



Theories of the Boulder Formation. 



On considering the two theories that have been proposed to ex- 

 plain the phenomena of the formation and transport of erratic 

 blocks, those, namely, of Agassiz and Sefstrom, it is manifest at 

 the first outset, that neither of them can be applied in the case of 

 Denmark, where these masses of drifted material are spread over 

 thousands of square miles of nearly level country. 



On the one hand the theory of Agassiz is inadmissible because 

 of the manifest relation of our drift with the broken coral reefs, 

 the newest of the cretaceous rocks, and also because the fossils 

 distributed throughout the whole, and more especially in the 

 brown-coal formation, indicate a climate like that of the Mediter- 

 ranean at the present day. But this glacial theory is yet further 

 opposed by the appearance of stratification, manifest everywhere, 

 proving the deposition to have gone on under water, and also by 

 the vast abundance of fragments of cretaceous rock accompanying 

 the erratic blocks, fragments which could not have been brought 

 down by glaciers from the northern mountains ; since not only is 

 it the case that no such formations now exist there, but there is also 

 no indication whatever of their ever having been deposited. The 

 innumerable disturbances which have gone on during the deposit 

 of our boulder formation, and the fact that the beds enclose so 

 many fragments of Arragonite distributed through the elevated 

 masses, and requiring for their formation the existence of an 

 elevated temperature, is also opposed to this glacial theory. 



And if giving up this theory in its simple and original sense, the 

 idea of Hausmann, Lyell, and others concerning the agency of 

 icebergs and floating glaciers should be suggested, as explaining 

 the appearances in question, it must be remembered that in the case 

 of Denmark, the drift together with the thick beds of sand and 



BBS 



