54 



again been upheaved, and the upheaved coral reefs haw no 

 doubt again begun to be lowered (at Bombay there is found a 

 sunken forest-bed), but the process has not yet proceeded so far 

 as to bring them below the surface of the sea. 



We have still to make one or two remarks upon the Glacial 

 age and its formations. The lignites of Diiruten in Switzerland 

 are (cfr. Heer) contemporaneous with „the forest bed of Cro- 

 mer." The fossils prove this. They contain nearly the same 

 vegetable remains, the same extinct fauna. The lignites of Divrnten 

 rest on, and are covered by, bottom-moraines, and are consequently 

 „interglacial " They show 7 alternations of peat and forest beds, 

 and may be fitted into the curve between the arcs 15' and 1". 

 From this the Alps must, already in the Red Crag period, have 

 had great glaciers. And in this there is nothing improbable, 

 when we recollect that Leda arctica and other Arctic animals 

 existed on the coasts of England, already at that period, and 

 that the Chillesfnnl beds indicate a far colder climate than the 

 subsequent forest-bed of Cromer. 



It is instructive to note, how each rise of the sea in England, 

 during the Quaternary epoch, caused the inland ice to increase. 

 This appears to agree with CroWs hypothesis that glacial 

 periods are related to great eccentricities. But the distribution 

 of glaciers in modern days shows that geographical conditions 

 have the most important influence. Only when these are fav- 

 ourable can a high degree of eccentricity bring about the for- 

 mation of an inland ice; if they are very favourable ice-periods 

 may occur even with a slight eccentricity, as in Greenland in 

 our own day. When the eccentricity rises the down-pour in the 

 rainy periods also increases. If the sea is cold it will come down 

 as snow. And in that, manner, under favourable geographical con- 

 ditions, the glaciers would increase as the eccentricity increased. 



Also in North Germany there have been (cfr. Jentztch) three 

 ice-ages, with corresponding bottom-moraines (and oscillations?) 



Til A1PS ! bei ' e haVG been < cfr - Pe >^ Vergletsch d. 

 ice-ages. 



deutsch. Alpena 



We have thus 



clay, and 



