290 Apparent objections to the Glacial Theory. 



of climates during the period immediately preceding the present dis- 

 tribution of land and sea, was such as is here conjecturally describ- 

 ed, for we perceive that animals analogous to those now only exist- 

 ing within tropical countries, once lived in the immediate vicinity 

 of the arctic regions. The occurrence of these tropical forms, 

 while it indubitably proves, that during the period alluded to, there 

 were some lands uncovered in the northern hemisphere, likewise 

 establishes the fact, that the climates of the regions in which those 

 animals lived were warmer than at present, and therefore, that if 

 they were adapted to tropical constitutions, they must have been 

 quite unfitted for the production of icebergs. 



The occurrence of large boulders on the summits and slopes of 

 lofty mountains, between which and the true site from whence the 

 blocks have been torn, deep valleys at present intervene, have pre- 

 sented difficulties which it is said can only be removed by supposing 

 that icebergs were instrumental to their deposition at a time when 

 the localities in which they rest, were beneath the waves ; but in- 

 dependent of the decisive argument above given, it may very rea- 

 sonably be doubted, whether a huge mass of rock suddenly liberated 

 from a floating iceberg, would ever have found a resting place either 

 on the summit or slopes of a submerged chain of mountains, 

 inasmuch as such a falling body, however much its velocity might 

 have been moderated by the medium through which it was descend- 

 ing, could never have been so gently and quietly deposited as to 

 enable it to rest at once in a state of equilibrium, but on the con- 

 trary, the weight of the mass and the impetus acquired in the 

 descent, would undoubtedly have caused it to roll down into the 

 troughs or submerged valleys, unless it happened accidentally to 

 alight in some hollow, or under some other peculiar circumstance 

 which prevented its farther descent. So far, however, from this ap- 

 pearing to be the case, the boulders are often found upon the very 

 summit of hills without the least additional support. It may per- 

 haps be urged, that at the time when the blocks were deposited, they 

 sunk down amidst the softer sediments with which the submerged 

 land was covered, and so found an immediate support and resting 

 place; but that subsequently when the land was upraised, those 

 softer materials were washed away or drained off by the retiring 



