102 
GLACIAL PHENOMENA IN MAINE. 
Switzerland, and on the slopes of the Jura, 
which, on the contrary, had travelled from the 
south northward, and had their origin in the 
Alps. Before they attracted the attention of 
scientific men, these dislodged masses were so 
generally recognized as strangers to the soil, 
that in Germany, among the common people, 
they went by the name of Fiindlinge ,— home¬ 
less children. They are indeed the wandering 
Bohemians among rocks. 
The first interpretation of these phenomena, 
which very naturally suggested itself, when 
they began to be systematically studied, was 
that of their transportation by water. It was 
supposed that irruptions of the northern oceans 
had swept the loose masses of Scandinavian 
rock over adjoining countries, and that large 
lakes within the Alps had broken their natural 
barriers, and poured down into the plains, 
carrying with them debris of all sorts, and 
scattering them over the lowlands. But soon 
it was found that this theory did not agree 
with the facts; that the valleys of the Alps, 
for instance, had sent out boulders, not only 
northward, but southward and westward also, 
and that their distribution was often so regu- 
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