EPOCH OF GREAT GLACIATION 
Firmer and purer does their ice become 45 
As move they further from their mountain home : 
Till long drawn vales are thickly overlaid 
With glacier floods, that seem of crystal made. 
Dense beds of snow, increasing fast, now hide 
Bleak Scandinavia's uplands far and wide. 50 
All Scotia's highlands thick are covered o'er, 
And vast on Erin's midlands is the store. 
North hills in Albion too are heavy crowned, 
And Cambria holds aloft as gathering ground 
Snowdon and Arenig. Away to east, 55 
The chains of Alps, with snowy mantles fleeced, 
Groan with their weighty garbs. Whilst to the north 
White Ural heights are rolling glaciers forth. 
No less about the western hemisphere, 
Great gathering grounds with piled up snow appear. 60 
Raised lands to south and west of Hudson Bay 
Are stacked with snow. Whilst far to west away 
The Rocky Mountains, and the Cascade Chain 
Threaten far lands, and e'en the western main. 
Here then at these great centres snowy masses 65 
Are mobilizing : and far through vales and passes 
Will move the glacier columns, as to north 
And south and east and west they sally forth. 
Nor will all lands across the line escape, 
And some in snowy outlines now must shape. 70 
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