LITERARY NOTICES. 



557 



universe had an animating soul, which 

 was diffused through every form of ma- 

 terial existence, giving to each the 

 powers and properties it was found to 

 possess. He was a warm upholder of 

 the Oopernican system of philosophy; 

 for adherence to which Galileo also suf- 

 fered at a later date. He believed that 

 the universe was of infinite extent and 

 embraced an endless multitude of worlds. 

 In a word, he had broken the fetters of 

 ecclesiastical dogma, and had entered 

 on a career of original speculation and 

 research. No wonder he was considered 

 a dangerous man, and that first the 

 prison, and finally the stake, were his 

 portion. Times, however, have greatly 

 changed; and he who was led as a 

 criminal to death for having dared to 

 think for himself and uttered his thought, 

 is now placed high on the honor-roll of 

 the forerunners of modern liberty and 

 civilization, and is gratefully remem- 

 bered by thousands of intelligent men 

 and women the world over. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The Ice Age in North America, and its 

 Bearing upon the Antiquit? of Man. 

 By G. Frederick Wright, D. D., LL. D., 

 F. G. S. A. With an Appendix on " The 

 Probable Cause op Glaciation." By 

 Warren Upham, F. G. S. A. With 147 

 Maps and Illustrations. New York : D. 

 Appleton & Co. 8vo, pp. xviii and 622. 

 Price, $5. 



The publication of " The Great Ice Age," 

 by James Geikie, fifteen years ago, and of its 

 second edition, revised, two or three years 

 later, presented to the general reader a com- 

 prehensive and very interesting account of 

 the Glacial period, the latest completed chap- 

 ter of geologic history. In this, as in so 

 many other portions of the geologic record, 

 the most important recent contributions to 

 knowledge have been gathered on this con- 

 tinent ; and Prof. Wright, widely known for 

 his extensive observations and fruitful inves- 

 tigations in glacial geology, has here set 

 forth, in an attractive popular style, the 

 ) vast array of evidence that an ice-sheet for- 

 merly overspread the northern half of North 

 America, stretching southward to Nantucket, 





Martha's Vineyard, and Long Island, to the 

 cities of New York, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, 

 and on the Pacific coast to Seattle and Van- 

 couver Island. 



Conclusive proof that the drift deposits, 

 bowlders, and striae found upon all the coun- 

 try farther north are due to the agency of 

 land -ice seems to be supplied by the ter- 

 minal moraines which were recognized only 

 about a dozen years ago by Clarence King 

 in the Elizabeth Islands on the south coast 

 of New England, by Cook and Smock in New 

 Jersey, and by Chamberlin in Wisconsin. 

 Since then Prof. Wright has devoted every 

 vacation and leisure day to the fascinating 

 study of the drift, and has personally exam- 

 ined and mapped large portions of the gla- 

 cial boundary along its extent across the 

 eastern half of the United States, from Nan- 

 tucket and Cape Cod through New Jersey, 

 Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mis- 

 souri, Kansas, Nebraska, and South and 

 North Dakota. This boundary traverses val- 

 leys, hills, and mountains, with surprising 

 disregard of the contour, often rising or 

 falling one thousand feet or more within 

 short distances in crossing the Alleghany 

 ranges. 



Not content with these investigations, 

 Prof. Wright went three years ago to Alas- 

 ka, and there spent a month in observations 

 of the Muir Glacier, which enters the sea at 

 the head of Glacier Bay, terminating in 

 water about six hundred feet deep, and ris- 

 ing above the water in a vertical cliff of ice 

 a mile long and two hundred and fifty to three 

 hundred feet high. The author's measure- 

 ments showed that this glacier is pushed out 

 into the bay at an average rate of forty feet 

 per day, moving thus many times faster than 

 the comparatively small glaciers of the Alps, 

 though not surpassing the motion of Green- 

 land glaciers, which similarly end in the sea, 

 being there broken into icebergs and floated 

 away. 



Portions of Prof. Wright's exploration 

 of the glacial boundary were done for the 

 Geological Surveys of Pennsylvania and of 

 the United States, the terminal moraine 

 through Pennsylvania being traced by him 

 in company with the late Prof. Henry Car- 

 vill Lewis. During these surveys, and in the 

 visit to the Muir Glacier, many very instruct- 

 ive photographs were taken, which appear 



