198 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



tonished the intelligent overseer of the quarry. Unfortunately, 

 before Eose arrived upon the scene the rock had been blasted 

 and broken up, and so he missed the opportunity of being the 

 first geologist to examine and describe glacial striae in Germany. 

 This good fortune was reserved for Naumann, who some eight 

 years later detected them near Wurzen in Saxony. 1 This dis- 

 covery, however, was soon forgotten, and German geologists 

 continued to hold to the opinion that all the drift-phenomena 

 of the low grounds were due to the action of icebergs and 

 marine currents, until in 1875 Professor Otto Torell, recalling 

 the observations of Sefstrom and Eose, boldly formulated the 

 view that the whole of Northern Germany had been overflowed 

 by the Scandinavian mer de glace. 2 



This theory met with much opposition, but it has had the 

 desired effect of awakening amongst German geologists a livelier 

 interest in the study of the glacial phenomena of their country. 

 Those who know how thickly North Germany is clothed with 

 drift-deposits, and how seldom the rock-surface is exposed, need 

 feel no surprise that the true character of the boulder-clay of 

 that region should have remained so long undetected, or that 

 in such a country many geologists should still hesitate to admit 

 the sufficiency of Torell's theory. Early in 1879 Professor 

 G. Berendt in an able paper 3 attempted to combine the glacier- 

 and iceberg -theories, much in the same manner as geologists 

 here have tried to do. He admits the existence of a great mer 

 de glace covering Scandinavia and the high grounds of Finland 

 at the same time that Northern Germany was submerged. 

 With him the boulder-clay of the northern regions, which were 

 covered by glacier-ice, is a true ground -moraine ; while the 

 boulder-clay and other drift deposits of Germany represent the 

 droppings of icebergs, and the work of marine currents. Very 

 shortly afterwards, however, appeared a remarkable paper by 

 Professor H. Credner, 4 in which he described the occurrence of 



1 Neues Jahrbuch, etc., 1844, pp. 557, 561, 680. 



2 Zeitschr. deutsch. geol. Ges., 1875, p. 961. 



3 Ibid., 1879, p. 1. 4 Ibid., 1879, p. 21. 



