122 
cannot help thinking that the future geologist will treat the hundreds of 
thousands in the very same way. This paper does seem to show r very 
clearly that the glacial period is by no means such a very distant one as 
many are inclined to suppose. It has struck me in past times in Switzer- 
land, and very forcibly during last summer, when I specially examined one 
or two of the Sw T iss valleys, that it is almost inconceivable that any stone 
whatever can have resisted the action of the weather for the vast period 
said to have elapsed since the glacial period. If w r e compare the markings 
of the stone at the foot of the Mer de Glace, where the glacier has melted 
away, with the markings of the Ober-Hasli Thai, it is hardly conceivable 
that the stone can have been left marked by the glacial period, which we 
find almost as distinct and fresh as the stone which was covered by the 
glacier only seventeen or eighteen years ago. Undoubtedly granite will 
stand a long time, of which we have evidence in Cleopatra’s Needle, be- 
neath us ; but I do not think one hundred thousand years will leave many 
markings upon it, — (Hear, hear,) — and I cannot think that the granite of 
the Hollen Platten will stand as long. In the upper part of the Maderaner 
Thai you have the glacial markings in the most wonderful perfection in 
the mountain limestone ; but I do not think the mountain limestone will 
stand for a hundred thousand years. The channel markings are wonder- 
fully fresh in this limestone, and we can hardly believe that it is even four 
thousand years since the glacier has channelled these stones. If we look 
back to the time, only about eighteen years ago, when the glaciers were 
rapidly advancing, into these valleys, and find now that two or three miles 
of glacier have melted away, leaving these beautifully marked stones, and if 
we consider that there had been but little change in climate there, or in the 
rest of Europe ; we may see how very little change would be required, not 
merely to alter the glaciers, but almost to sweep them away. I think I am 
right in saying that the Upper Grindelwald glacier has sunk 150 feet ; 
what, then, would another 150 feet do ? It would leave many of the 
glaciers things of the past. One hundred and fifty feet thick of ice has 
disappeared with no change of climate, and a very little change of climate 
would sweep away the great Aletsch Glacier, and the Mer de Glace, and the 
Grindelwald Glacier. On the other hand, does it not seem possible that 
with but little change of climate the glaciers might descend and fill the 
valleys, reproducing the glacial epoch ? I do not see any real proof that the 
glacial period of Switzerland was distinguished by such stupendous climatic 
conditions as is ordinarily supposed. The change might be consistent with 
the habitability of the greater part of Europe, and with hardly more varia- 
tions than we see at present going on in Greenland. Do not let us forget 
that the glacial epoch is still going on in Greenland. A great part of Green- 
land has recently ceased to be habitable, and this points to the possibility 
of the glacial period, stupendous as it was in itself, co-existing with the life of 
man in the rest of the world, and possibly at no very distant period. It is 
quite possible that even within historic periods, even within the time of 
Nineveh and Babylon, there may have been changes on the vastest scale in 
