297 
Prof. Milne — Across Europe and Asia. 
whelmed many dwellings and whole forests. After it liad melted, 
many stones and blocks were found piled in great quantities upon 
the ground. 
The existence of blocks at heights considerably above the positions 
frora which they originated, of which there are many remarkable 
examples in Sweden, is another phenomenon which points to the 
action of coast-ice upon a rising area for its explanation. 
Huge glaciers and ice-caps, together with subsidences and eleva- 
tions, explain many local pkenomena which the agent I have chosen 
would by itself be incapable of giving a direct answer to. But it 
must be remembered that, on the other hand, coast ice acting on a 
rising area offers explanations to other questions, as in the case of 
boulders raised to positions above the rock from which they were 
derived, where glaciers and ice are comparatively incapable of 
furnishing an answer, so that the relative merits of these two agents 
are to some extent divided. 
The abrading action of coast-ice on a rising area is an undoubted 
fact, and one that is noio actively going on before our eyes. Slight 
physical changes in past geological times may have so intensiiied it 
that its effects were to be seen as far south in the Old World as they 
are now in the New World. Huge glaciers and ice-caps, on the 
other hand, are phenomena whose existence can only be established 
by hard fighting. 
Admitting the excentricity of the earth’s orbit and other cosmical 
changes, Arago denied that ice-caps would result, Herscliel bareiy 
admitted their possibility, whilst other astronomers, to whom geolo- 
gists look as to the last peg upon which they can hang their hopes, 
are unceasingly occupied in one controversy or another. This being 
the case, so far as the origin of the agent with which we deal is con- 
cerned, coast-ice must come prominen tly to the fore. Not only upon 
such a point as this, but also if we were to consider the general de- 
vastatiug influence which would result from anything like a universal 
covering of ice in our northern regions, we again find ourselves face 
to face with difficulties, the explanation of which would not be called 
for, if we are content to extend our ideas respecting the efficacy of 
coast-ice upon a rising area. 
In conclusion, I may say that I feel convinced that Coast Ice lias 
done and is doing much towards the modelling of rising areas, but 
how far this has extended yet needs investigation. In bye-gone 
times the climate was colder than it is now, and coast-ice extended 
farther south than it does at present. Düring this period many 
glaciers were increased, and many, especially in the higher regions, 
were called into existence ; but that these ever filled oceans and 
covered continents, I do not see the necessity of supposing, unless it 
be to create materials for amazement and debate. 
(Tu be continued in our next Number.') 
