Perry.] 118 : [February 28, 
air, suspended as it were between heaven and earth, above the region 
in which clouds are sometimes wont to float to-day.+ 
A word is required in respect to the cause assigned by those who 
regard the old elevated beaches as oceanic in their origin, for the en- 
tire absence of marine remains. It is said that, while the region was 
under the ocean, anu be it remembered long enough for the forma- 
tion of distinctive and well-marked shore-lines, the climate was too 
cold for the existence, or at least for more than a sparse display of 
organic forms. ‘This reason, which may have seemed valid years ago, 
snrely would not be assigned to-day by a well-informed zoologist or 
botanist; for it is now clearly established that even the Arctic seas 
abound in phases of life—not in the same kinds, but still in given 
varieties of life—scarcely less than those within the Tropics. ~And 
this remark, as should be born in mind, has a broader reference than 
to the old beaches; it touches an essential defect in the whole iceberg 
hypothesis. But on this point it is not necessary to dwell, and the — 
same must be said in regard to the lapse of time. Indeed, so much 
has been advanced in respect to the elements indicative of duration 
that a single sentence must suffice for this phase of the subject. The 
condition of the old beaches at Ripton, already considered in sufficient 
detail, the amount of sand and pebbles of which it is in part com- 
posed, and the degree in which they have been worn by water, all 
suggest that the supposed glacial lake probably existed for a consid-_ 
erable length of time. Their comparatively low elevation shows that 
the ice was on the wane and thus indicates how slow must have been 
the wasting of the ice-sheet. Other instances of old shore-lines 
might be given ; but the single one cited must answer. It may serve 
to make plain the mode in which some of the other elevated beaches 
in New England were probably formed, and thus relieve us from the 
necessity of supposing a submergence of the region to a depth of 
several thousand feet when it is contradicted by facts, and unauthor- 
ized by any substantial evidence. 
1T ought perhaps to add that the so-called old sea-beaches were formed at differ- 
ent times; that a few of them, like those at Ripton, belong to the Ice-period 
proper; that some had their origin in what was the early part of the Terrace 
period in New England, while others took their rise near its close; and that most 
of them are to be regarded as terraces and not as beaches. Professor Agassiz 
having spent several weeks in the White Mountains since the text was written, in- 
forms me that the ‘‘ beaches’”’ of the Franconia Notch, and of the White Moun- 
tain notch are the most recent with which he is acquainted, more recent than the 
terraces of the Deerfield valley. 
