DISTRIBUTION OF SOILS. 215 



force upon each of the two phenomena, so that whatever explains the one, shall also ex- 

 plain the other. 



In some places, boulders, (lie most effective instruments for scoring rocks, lie in imme- 

 diate contact with the scored surfaces, and in so unequivocal a relation to the grooves and 

 surfaces themselves, that we deem it a rational judgment that they were the immediate 

 agents of the work. This view excludes the hypothesis which maintains the groovings to 

 have been produced, in all cases, by the movement of icebergs shod with boulders and 

 gravel ; for if the great mass of the soil has been moved as we have reason to believe, then 

 icebergs are incompetent to the work : they can not have pushed forward the whole coat- 

 ing of the northern hemisphere. That they do carry boulders and gravel, is true, and 

 they have assisted in the distribution of these materials over various portions of the surface 

 of the earth : but their agency in this operation becomes very insignificant, when compared 

 with what has actually been done : we might as well attribute the work to our mountain 

 rills. 



Our view also excludes the hypothesis which ascribes the scoring of our rocks to the 

 operation of glaciers. A general movement and transport of the entire body of the soil, is 

 a condition of the surface totally at variance with the existence and motion of glaciers. 

 The glacier hypothesis necessarily supposes a state of things entirely different from that 

 which evidently existed during the drift period. It supposes a high region, or one of per- 

 petual frost, surrounded by a mild and temperate one, toward which the melting glacier 

 slides, bearing along its burthen of rocks and stones and gravel. Such a hypothesis im- 

 plies the existence of an elevated region from which the striae would diverge, or an elevated 

 centre towards which they would point ; but the facts themselves furnish no indications 

 of such an arrangement. The striae or grooves point southward ; and though in some 

 mountain passes they are deflected at right angles to the main course, yet they never 

 proceed from a culminating point : they even pass directly over mountains. But we deem 

 it unnecessary to dwell further upon this hypothesis, not because it is absurd in itself, or 

 destitute of facts to sustain it in its own field, but because it is inapplicable to the pheno- 

 mena in this country. 



We have stated some objections to two theories, which are favorites with a few geolo- 

 gists ; but in taking this liberty, we by no means wish to convey the impression that we 

 are confident we can propose a better theory. We have ever regarded the phenomena of 

 drift and diluvial action as forming the most difficult problem in the whole range of geolo- 

 gical inquiry. An expert theorist, possessing a full command of language and logic, may 

 propose a scheme which, if put into execution according to the terms of the hypotheses 

 and requirements, might meet the conditions required for the solution of the problem. 

 Waves of translation, mountain high, may be demanded, that shall travel from continent 

 to continent with hurricane speed, bearing in their bosoms the comminuted materials of 

 the earth, and forcing along enormous rocks by the vehemence of their momentum ; but 

 the invention of a hypothesis that will plausibly account for the occurrence of a pheno- 



