Editorial Comment. 183 
concerning the early glacialists are mixed the beginnings of 
the Glacial theory as we have seen it in these latter clays, por- 
tentous in size and duration, filling the valleys of Brazil with 
Andean ice and capping both poles with alternate lunoids of 
massive neve. 
Sir H. H. H. agrees with Dr.Volger in tracing the first idea 
of the glacial theory to a little poem published by the bota- 
nist, Schimper, on the 11th of February, 1837. It was entitled 
"Die Eiszeit, fur Freunde gedruckt am Geburtstag Galilei." 
To Agassiz, however, he attributes the original idea or 
vision of this prodigious glacier — the glacial nightmare — and 
with justice, for no one since has dared to picture "die Eis- 
zeit 1 ' in the bold and picturesque, we may say hyperbolical 
language of the great Neuchatelese which is quoted by our 
author. " The polar ice which at the present day covers the 
miserable regions of Spitzbergen, Greenland and Siberia ex- 
tended far into the temperate zones of both hemispheres, leaving 
probably but a broader or narrower belt around the equator. 
Nay, if Tchudi's observations in the Cordilleras and Newbold's 
at Seringa patam shall be confirmed, the whole surface of the 
earth was according to all probability for a time one uninter- 
rupted surface of ice from which projected only the highest 
mountain ridges covered with eternal snow. During the gla- 
cial period there was no motion, not a brook nor a rill fur- 
rowed the surface of the snowy covering." 
Such a frigid, frozen condition of our globe may well be 
described as a glacial nightmare the awakening from which 
would be cheering and invigorating. Compared with even 
the widest and wildest views now maintained this was indeed 
the reign of "omnipotent ice." 
In the seventh chapter "the thrilling regions of thick-ribbed 
ice" in the western world come under examination and the 
great ice-sheet formed by the confluent Laurentide, New Eng- 
land and Rocky Mountain glaciers is described. This is fa- 
miliar to most of our readers. Passing on to the glaeiation of 
South America, Agassiz's emphatic language regarding the 
South Polar ice-cap is quoted, showing that he went to the full 
length of his theory and even perhaps beyond it. "Is it improb- 
able," asks this glacialist, " that when a sheet of ice 6,000 feet 
thick moved over New England, the valley of the Amu- 
