37C 
TnE GEOLOGIST. 
roails : one would have tliouglit a sliowcr of them had fallen from the sky. I 
have explained this by the passag-e of an army, of whicli each warrior would 
believe himself under the obligation of throwing one of these stones, more or 
less worked, on the sepulchre of a chief, or on the place where he had beea 
killed. And tlic multitude of signs is only a small part of those that existed, 
for all those, the material of which was woody, soft, or soluble, have dis- 
appeared." 
Rcsumiug the previous topic, M. de Perthes concludes his chapter with the 
foUovnng remarks : — 
" Icebergs floating from one sea to another will explain not only the pre- 
sence of rocks and of minerals in countries where there exists neither quarry 
nor vein of them, but also the mysteries of spontaneous vegetation, or the sudden 
appearance of beings previously unknown. Bulbs, grain, germs, eggs, chiysa- 
lides, and larva; even, protected by those walls of ice, braving all temperatures, 
all shocks, aU contacts, could they not preserve almost indefinitely their vital 
power and their productive virtue ? Have there been made in this respect all 
possible experiments, and is it known up to wliat point ice is the protector of 
life ? Snow, is it not so ? Are there not numerous vegetables and even 
animals tliat it defends from the destruction which would be brought upon 
them by the sudden variations of the atmosphere ? Does even the most intense 
frost kill certain creatures ? No ; and frogs frozen to the extent that there 
limbs break like glass have been re-animated by a gradual transition from this 
excessive cold to a moderate temperature. In our ponds arc there not fish 
and insects seized by the ice, which, seemmgly dead, revive in the spring ? 
" One ought also to look at the question under its purely geological relations, 
and decide if the ideas that I have mooted on the transport of erratic blocks 
by floating icebergs could not be applied to the formation of certain banks or 
deposits. That would inform us how these worked stones are to be found ou 
pomts very far from those whence they had come. 
"After the necessary investigations on the movement of the glaciers of the 
Alps, on the augmentation or the reduction of their masses, could we not 
establish some calculation as to the greater or less antiquity of the last great 
invasion of the snows, and of the inundation which woidd have resulted from 
their sudden or gradual melting ? If a part of our rivers were fed by the 
draining of snow-water, it is evident that the mass of the waters of these 
rivers ought to have decreased with the diminution of the fall of snow. 
Everything tends to show that water-courses, at present hardly navigable, have 
been deep rivers. Our largest European rivers, if one judge by the extent of 
their valleys, which in their entireties ought to be their ancient beds, had thus 
ten times more water than now-a-days. This reduction has been attributed 
to the destruction of forests, which certainly ought to go for something; but, 
according to my ideas, the decrease of the mass of snows has contributed much 
more to this result. Lastly, why does less snow fall than formerly ? These 
deluges of snow, are they periodical ? Should we see again some day the 
earth re-covered with this winding-sheet, that for ages to come would throw 
it into a sleep of death from which it would oidy be drawn by another watery 
deluge, would this deluge, by its fecundating oose, restore to it its vegeta- 
tive heat, and its first fertility ? Great questions. 
" Without seeking to read the future, let us profit by what we have under 
our eyes to enlighten the past, and let us not reject the light which we have." 
(To be continued.) 
