246 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



their present level, those parts which were not submerged 

 were covered with glaciers, and destitute of animal life. At 

 an after period, an upheaval of some 800 feet took place, 

 and then we find the remains of a fauna such as now exists 

 in the Arctic seas. A further elevation introduced the 

 epoch when creatures, like the rein-deer and mammoth, 

 fitted for living in an arctic climate, were intermingled with 

 the animals that still inhabit the' country. Again, another 

 rise of the land, variously estimated at from 50 to 100 feet, 

 introduced our present peculiarly temperate climate.* 



We usually find, that the higher the elevation of the 

 country, the greater is the cold ; but here we remark, that in 

 proportion to the rise of the land, there has been an increase 

 of temperature. This induces the supposition that the sink- 

 ing of the western coast of Europe, and the deepening of the 

 adjoining ocean, had formed a channel, which, if we may so 

 express ourselves, drew towards it the icy current from the 

 polar sea, and that at an after-time this polar current was 

 again directed into another course by the upheaval of the 

 bottom of the ocean. 



If contemporaneously with this deepening of the sea on 

 the coasts of Europe, there was such a depression of the 

 coasts of America as would direct the G-ulf-stream up 

 through Davis' Straits, or if there were any other alteration 

 of the channels of the ocean, by which the two currents were 

 kept distinct, a supposition by no means improbable, we 

 would then find ample explanation of all the phenomena of 

 the glacial period. 



At present, the current from the equator meets and 

 mingles with that from the pole. By this means, their dis- 

 tinctive characters are in a great measure obliterated. 

 But if, by any cosmical arrangement, they were made to 

 flow in separate channels, without intermixture, the chill- 

 ing influence of the one, and the warming effects of the 

 other, would be much more apparent. The districts that 

 are at present subjected to the rigours of a frozen climate 

 might then rejoice in the mildness and verdure of a tem- 



* If there is any inaccuracy in these statements, we trust to the correction 

 of the practical geologists in the meeting. 



