226 The American Geologist. October, 1893 
age. During interglacial times he thinks that mesolithic man 
ma}' have been present in other parts of Europe, if we adopt 
the recent classification of the early stages of culture in the 
stone age as paleolithic, mesolithic, and neolithic. The 
erosion of the Scandinavian fjords he attributes to glacial 
rather than stream action, since they are in so many instances 
much deeper inside than outside the coast line ; and no evi- 
dence is found for formerly higher altitude of the country as 
a cause of the ice accumulation. The Ice age in Norway 
seems hardly to have ceased, as there remain a hundred gla- 
ciers, some of which are of great extent. In the deutero- 
glacial epoch the ice-sheet had its greatest hight east of the 
mountain range, and on the west it terminated in the fjords, 
not reaching the outer coast line. The recession of this ice- 
sheet was rapid, and a part of the postglacial epoch was 
warmer than the present time. The recent and last warm 
stages of the postglacial epoch are estimated to have comprised 
about 5,000 years, the whole of this epoch being 7,000 to 
9,000 years. The deutero-glacial epoch, divided into the stage 
marked by the formation of the raer or eskers and a subse- 
quent stage of ice advance, included perhaps 15,000 or 25,000 
years; the interglacial epoch, some 15,000 years; and the 
protero-glacial epoch, which also is thought to comprise two 
or more divisions, may have occupied 100,000 to 150,000 years. 
Dr. Albiiecht Heim noted the temperate facies of the floras 
enclosed in beds underlain and overlain by till in the valleys 
of the Alps and adjoining country. Three distinct glacial 
epochs are recorded, of which the second witnessed the great- 
est extension of the confluent glaciers. He very confidently 
asserts that the Pleistocene period was characterized in Swit- 
zerland by at least three alternating cycles of cold and succeed- 
ing warmth, attended respectively by great accumulations of 
ice and its almost complete departure. 
Dr. Robert Bell claimed that the glacial drift of Canada 
should be especially well studied in forming any general the- 
ory of the Pleistocene glaciation of this continent. All of 
Canada, excepting its northwestern corner west of the Mac- 
kenzie valley and perhaps a narrow strip bordering the east 
side of the Rocky mountains in Alberta, was enveloped by the 
ice-sheet. From the Laurentide highlands and the area of 
