GLACIERS ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 155 



Conscientious men still linger on who find comfort in holding 

 fast to some shred of the old belief in diabolic possession. The 

 sturdy declaration in the last century by John Wesley, that 

 " giving up witchcraft is giving up the Bible/' is echoed feebly in 

 the latter half of this century by the eminent Catholic ecclesiastic 

 in France who declares that " to deny possession by devils is to 

 charge Jesus and his apostles with imposture," and asks, " How 

 can the testimony of apostles, fathers of the Church, and saints 

 who saw the possessed and so declared, be denied ? " And a still 

 fainter echo lingers in Protestant England.* 



But, despite this conscientious opposition, science has in these 

 latter days steadily wrought hand in hand with Christian charity 

 in this field, to evolve a better future for humanity. The 

 thoughtful physician and the devoted clergyman are now con- 

 stantly seen working together ; and it is not too much to expect 

 that Satan, having been cast out of the insane asylums, will ere 

 long disappear from monasteries and camp-meetings, even in the 

 most unenlightened regions of Christendom. 



■»»» 



GLACIERS ON THE PACIFIC COAST.f 



By G. FREDERICK WRIGHT, D. D., LL. D. 



"VTORTHWARD from Washington Territory the coast is every- 

 -^ where very rugged, being formed by the lofty peaks of an 

 extension of the Cascade Range ; while the thousands of islands 

 which fringe the coast of British Columbia and Alaska are but 

 the partially submerged peaks of an extension of the Coast Range, 

 from which the great glaciers of former times have scraped off 

 nearly all the fertile soil. It is estimated that there are ten thou- 

 sand islands between Washington Territory and Mount St. Elias, 

 and all the larger of them bear snow-covered summits during the 

 whole year. The water in the narrow channels separating these 

 islands is ordinarily several hundred feet deep, affording, through 

 nearly the whole distance, a protected channel for navigation. 



Three great rivers interrupt the mountain barrier of British 

 Columbia facing the Pacific — the Fraser, the Skeena, and the 

 Stickeen — and the interior is penetrated for some distance by innu- 

 merable fiords. The Canadian Pacific Railroad follows the course 

 of the Fraser for a long distance, and passes within sight of gla- 

 ciers of considerable extent, and every fiord receives the drainage 



* See the Abbe Barthelemi, in the " Dictionnaire de la Conversation " ; also the Rev. W. 

 Scott's "Doctrine of Evil Spirits proved," London, 1857. 



\ From advance sheets of " The Ice Age in North America, and its Bearings on the 

 Antiquity of Man." In press of D. Appleton & Co. 



