ALASKA DUKING ICE AGE 77 



the pushing out of the Keewatin ice- sheet from a low flat 

 centre, without even a suggestion of a mountainous nucleus, 

 to one thousand miles westward, while the Rocky Mountain 

 glaciers were thrust eastward, but little beyond the foot- 

 hiUs. 



The ice from this great centre of dispersion is supposed 

 to have reached the mouth of the Mackenzie Eiver close to 

 the borders of Alaska. Nevertheless, the same authors ac- 

 knowledge that the plains of Alaska were apparently free from 

 glaciation, even during the time when, two thousand miles 

 further south, the waters of the Ohio and the Missouri were 

 actually believed to have been turned from their courses by the 

 encroaching ice-sheets. How can we reconcile the co-existenoe 

 of these two extraordinary and altogether anomalous climatic 

 conditions in adjoining parts of the same contiuent ? Surely 

 there must be some mistake. At present there is far less pre- 

 cipitation of moisture in the Keewatin region of Canada than 

 in any of the western mountain ranges. The existing con- 

 ditions of land and water must consequently have been entirely 

 altered during the Glacial Epoch. Indeed, even our concep- 

 tions of the nature of climates would have to undergo some 

 change before we can realize how this stupendous ice-sheet 

 in the Keewatin region came to be built up, while Alaska was 

 only able to form a few local glaciers. In a previous chapter 

 (p. 46) I ventured to make some critical remarks on the 

 supposed gigantic ice-sh,eets of the Glacial Epoch, and I hope 

 to show now that the biological evidences are altogether op- 

 posed to the views that the Ice Age was an epoch of excep-\ 

 tional cold. My criticisms on the current beliefs in the land- 

 ice theory are by no means new. We need only peruse the 

 fascinating volumes entitled " Ice or Water " published by 

 Sir Henry Howorth^ in which the claims of water as a power- 

 ful agent in the formation of so-called glacial deposits are 

 ably discussed. My object, however, in writing this work was 

 not to investigate the origin of the Ice Age. This short 

 digression into the domain of glacial geology merely serves 

 to acquaint the general reader with some of the special 

 difficulties we have to contend with in explaining certain' 

 phenomena connected with the Alaskan fauna. 



Since the beginning of the last century it was known that 



