Review of Recent Geological Literature. 119 
From this depression the continent gradually arose, leaving the ter- 
races as evidences of the recession of the waters. Thus came on the 
second continental period, when the land was more extensive than at 
present. A southern marine fauna extended far north along our coasts, 
and great mammals now extinct roamed over the land. 
The author's views are illustrated by two maps, showing what, in his 
opinion, was the geography of .North America in the Cretaceous and 
Pleistocene periods, and leading to a discussion of the effects of the 
■changes of the areas of land and sea upon the climate of the temperate 
zone. He has no hesitation in ascribing the refrigeration of the Glacial 
period to this cause, which is, he thinks, amply sufficient to produce all 
the local glaciers and the floating ice to which he attributes the glacial 
phenomena. 
The venerable Nestor of Canadian geologists may perhaps be par- 
doned for relieving here the dry details of science by a sally wherein he 
indulges in a little good-humored banter of his opponents in matters 
glacial. "Following," he writes, "the example of those geologists of the 
United States who are in the habit of giving a factitious reality to their 
palteogeographical views by attaching names to extinct lakes, etc., we 
may name some of the more prominent features of our map after emi- 
nent living advocates of extreme glacial views, whose personal merit 
and ability, I am prepared to admit, are in the inverse proportion to the 
probability of their theoretical views. The great southern bay at the 
bottom of which lies the 'terminal moraine,' may bear the name of Dana. 
The strait leading to the northeast, where the St. Lawrence now flows, 
may be Upham strait. The great western opening may well be called 
Chamberhn sound, and the northern bay, rilled with ice, in the region 
now occupied by Hudson's bay. may be the gulf of Wright.'" 
Then pursuing the line of argument which he has for many years 
maintained, Sir. J. W. Dawson denies the possibility of a polar ice-cap 
or a continental glacier. He first asserts that the amount of snow 
never could be sufficient for the purpose, and secondly, that the evidence 
is not conclusive and may be read in a different sense. Space will not 
allow us to follow him into details, but it must be admitted that, so far 
as Canada is concerned, much that he urges may be allowed, though we 
can not avoid the conviction that most of the glacial geologists on the 
south side of the border will object when he attempts to annex the 
United States to the glacial empire of the Dominion. 
In the Pleistocene map three large areas of glaciated land are shown, 
and from these, in the author's opinion, flowed all the ice that made the 
glacial era. One of these is Greenland; another is Labrador, with the 
high land of the Laurentides, to the Arctic Ocean; and the third is the 
Rocky Mountain region of Canada. The northern Appalachians, New 
England, and Newfoundland, constitute three other and smaller centers 
of drift dispersion. The remainder of the northern portion of the con- 
tinent is occupied by the waters of the glacial seas into which these 
lands discharged their surplus of ice. 
It may thus be S9en that Sir William argues for a general lowering of 
