284 Apparent objections to the Glacial Theory. 



suming a ratio of gradual decrease ; but on the contrary, every fact 

 with which we are acquainted, tends forcibly to prove, that such 

 decrease, although periodical, and occurring at widely distant 

 periods of time, has yet been constant, and dependant mainly upon 

 the physical distribution of land and water. The strata of the 

 earth in all parts of the world, from the earliest to the most recent 

 periods, furnish incontestible evidence of violent disruption ; 

 the transition ; the secondary and the tertiary formations have 

 each in turn been subject to some revolution or convulsion, which 

 has destroyed the organised beings of those periods, and has been 

 succeeded by a decrease of temperature, and a corresponding 

 change in the species of the animal and vegetable tribes, a fact 

 well proved by the gradual passage in a fossil state of the exuvise 

 of beings adapted only for existence in the warmest climates, to 

 those which could survive only in more modern times. 



Yet doctrines have recently sprung up, apparently in direct 

 opposition to these revealed facts of geology, which are endea- 

 vouring to prove, that glaciers formerly existed in countries which 

 at the present day are totally free from them, and whose temper- 

 ature is moreover altogether opposed to their formation. The 

 proofs of the former occurrence of glaciers in Edinburgh and other 

 parts of Great Britain, as well as on the continent of Europe, are 

 said to be furnished by accummulations of transported matter 

 across the mouths of glens and valleys, and by deep grooves and 

 polished surfaces on rocks, to which it is asserted nothing but the 

 weighty friction of enormous glaciers charged with debris, could 

 have given rise. 



Now it must be evident, since glaciers do not at present occur in 

 our island, that if they ever had existence there, it must have been at 

 a period when the temperature was far colder than it has ever been 

 during the historical era of man ; yet this would be to set 

 at nought the evidence furnished by organic remains, for these 

 all prove, that up to the opening or commencement of the present 

 era, all prior conditions of temperature were invariably higher than 

 now, and such a result too, the theory of refrigeration must absolute- 

 ly demand. Lyell it is true, has endeavoured to explain, that by 

 some cause during the cooling process, the temperature may 



