Glaciers and Glacial Radiants — Claypole. 98 
ever existed an enormous accumulation in that area. Viewed 
in the light of facts the supposition is extravagant and un¬ 
founded. Besides the arguments already given, the evidence of 
meteorology might be cited in the same direction. If the pole 
should turn out, as now appears probable, to be situated in the 
midst of a considerable ocean it will certainly be less cold than 
the surrounding zone and as every wind there is southerly the 
atmosphere must be dry and eager for moisture. The precipi¬ 
tation must therefore be very little and the evaporation very 
great. Both these causes would combine with those above given 
to prevent the formation of neve and glaciers over that area. 
It will be obvious then that the theory above enunciated while 
avoiding the extravagant assumptions of the one party goes be¬ 
yond the too narrow restrictions of the other. At the same 
time it is more in accord with observed facts than either and is 
we believe fully capable of explaining all the phenomena of 
glacial action as manifested on the earth during the ice-age. 
In conclusion then we deduce from the facts and arguments 
stated above that all the observations of glacial action in the 
northern hemisphere are explicable by assuming the existence 
of enormous and confluent glacier-systems in and about the 
high-lands of Europe, Asia and America, 'which highlands be¬ 
came therefore glacial radiants and shed their load of ice in all 
directions over the lower adjacent ground along the lines of 
easiest flow; that this theory does no violence to the analogy of 
the existing order of things requiring merely an enlargement 
of actual glaciers by the intensification of actual conditions; 
that abundant evidence can be obtained, as for example, from 
Switzerland that the present glacier-system of the earth was 
once of sufficient magnitude to produce all the observed phe¬ 
nomena; that the most important glacial radiants in the north¬ 
ern hemisphere were, in North America, the district round 
Hudson bay, New England and the Adirondack^, with certain 
areas in the western Cordilleras, and in Europe the Norwegian 
Dovrefelds and the Alps, Asia apparently possessing none of 
commensurate importance; that it satisfactorily explains also 
the previously puzzling absence of glacial action over the great 
plain of Siberia, the coldest portion of the northern temperate 
zone; that the belief in a vast polar ice-cap thousands of feet 
