in these positions are known as roches perchees. If a glacier freighted with boulders be dissolved from an amelioration of climate, the blocks will be left stranded, or perched in positions already indicated. The same effect may be produced by the melting of an iceberg; but though from their very nature we do not meet with examples among glaciers in actual motion, yet when we meet with them in valleys of Alpine regions, we feel confident that they indicate the former extension of glaciers to these regions.

We have considered it necessary to enter into these details of the nature and effects of existing glaciers, in order that we may be able to recognize the evidences of their former existence in regions from which they have entirely disappeared. These effects may be briefly summed up under the following heads: First, moraines— both lateral, medial, and terminal; the last being frequently found protruded across a primary valley by a glacier entering from a secondary, and forming embankments for lakes. Second, roches montonnés. Third, roches perchées. Fourth, polished, grooved, and scratched surfaces. These results of glacial action are coextensive with glaciers themselves in all parts of the world where they exist, as in the Alps, Pyrenees, the Scandinavian highlands, Greenland, the Himalayas, and Andes of Chili.

In the year 1821, M. Venetz announced his opinion that the glaciers of the Alps formerly extended far beyond their present limits. This assertion was subsequently corroborated by the accumulative testimony of M. M. Charpentier, Agassiz, J. Forbes, and a host of observers. On descending the Alpine valleys from the limits of present glaciers-for example, along those of the Rhone and the Arve the rocks by which they are flanked may be observed presenting the phenomena already mentioned as produced emphatically by glaciers. The valley of the Rhone presents us with several fine examples of terminal moraines, at different levels thrown across the valley; while, as in the

case of that of the Arve, the rocks are in general worn into roches montonnées, which are grooved and scratched, with large boulders from the higher Alps resting on their rounded backs; and these appearances may be observed nearly a thousand feet below the limits of the existing glaciers. The Vosges and Pyrenees also present numerous and striking examples of a similar description, though in the case of the former range there are no glaciers actually in existence. Nevertheless, glacial phenomena are not the less positive in this range; in proof of which, we refer to the beautifully illustrated work of MM. Hogard and Dolfuss.*

But there is no country where the evidences of more extended glacial agency than the present are more abundantly manifest than amongst

the mountains and fiords of Scandinavia, for very full illustrations of which we are indebted to the pen and pencil of Professor J. Forbes.† Although in that country there is but one glacier which empties itself into the sea, nearly all those characteristically Norwegian features, the fiords, are ice-marked down to the water's edge the polished and rounded surfaces, perched rocks, and grooves becoming more strongly engraven as we ascend towards the higher parts of the valleys which now form glacier-troughs. In these positions a series of two or more terminal moraines, thrown like embankments across the valleys, may frequently be observed, marking pauses in the retreat of the glaciers upwards. The history of these remarkable objects resembles that of some race of savage mountaineers, which, at one time descending from their native fastnesses, invaded and laid waste the plains. Being at length repulsed and pursued up their valleys, they have turned at intervals upon their pursuers, and every terminal moraine marks the spot of each deadly struggle.

As might be expected, the loftiest mountains on the globe present us with glacial phenomena both of ancient and modern times, on a scale

Travels in Norway.

proportionate to their own magnitude. The snow line along the southern flank of the Himalayan range is about 15,000 feet above the sea, while glaciers descend about 1,000 feet lower; yet Dr. Hooker describes huge moraines at heights of 10,000 feet, that is, 4,000 feet below the present limits of glaciers.* The action of ice must indeed have been on a gigantic scale, when these mountains were enveloped in snow and ice in one broad mantle 19,000 feet from their summits; and consequently the magnitude of the terminal moraines and of the transported boulders of which they are formed is truly astonishing.

In

several instances the terminal moraines have formed embankments for lakes, which, according to the levels at which they stood, have arranged the erratic materials into terraces, as in the Yangma Valley; while in others, as in the case of Pambachen Valley, several of these moraines succeed each other at intervals, attaining elevations of 1,000 feet, with blocks from 100 to 200 feet in diameter. What other earthly power but ice would be capable of moving such masses?

In the regions we have been hitherto considering, glaciers are associated with the most sublime natural scenery, where the savage grandeur of the snowy regions is contrasted with the beauty and luxuriance of the lower mountain masses. This is remarkably the case in the Sikkim Himalaya, where the snow-clad heights of Nango and Kinchingunga, with their radiating streams of blue glaciers, appear at a distance as if rising from an interminable sea of hill and valley, clothed with zones of dense and luxuriant vegetation; but over the peninsula of Greenland the savage aspect of nature predominates, and from the 72nd parallel northward eternal snows and ice shroud the whole continent like a winding sheet. South of this line the coast is indented by fiords which ramify far into the interior, the sea frequently washing the extremities of glaciers which send forth fleets of smaller icebergs. North of this, however, the fiords form channels for glaciers which protrude into the sea and are filled with

ice to a depth of a thousand feet, as is proved by the length of the lines used by the natives in halibut fishing! It is from these outlets for the snows of the interior that the great icebergs of Baffin's Bay originate, some of which are from two to three miles in length, rising 200 feet above the surface, and reaching to a depth below five or six times that amount.

It is also certain that in Greenland glaciers had formerly a much greater range than at present; but as the evidence of this fact is precisely similar to that stated with regard to Norway, it will be unnecessary to enter into it here.

Glaciers are by no means confined to the northern hemisphere. The Andes of Chili and Patagonia afford fine examples of them, as described by Mr. Darwin. Southward from the southern extremity of Chili the snow line, which is there at 6,000 feet elevation, gradually descends, till at Tierra del Fuego it reaches to only 3,000 feet above the sea. Amidst the desolate fiords of this inhospitable region, glaciers descend to the brink of the sea, surrounded by dense woods which extend upwards to the snowline. The formation of icebergs here is remarkable. The glaciers frequently stand in lofty walls above cliffs whose bases are washed by deep arms of the sea. Enormous masses of ice occasionally fall from the cliff with a noise like that of a "broadside of a man-of-war," which reverberates through the lonely channels. Waves of great size are thence produced, which burst on the adjoining coasts and hurl upon the beaches boulders many tons in weight.

It must be evident that when bergs of ice are launched, bearing on their surfaces blocks of rock and gravel, these latter will be strewn over the bed of the ocean as the ice melts; consequently, were the Greenland seas converted into land, the surface would be found overspread with gravel, and large boulders of transported rocks imbedded in the finer sediments deposited by the waters. This would also be the case with the sea-bed surrounding Tierra del Fuego and the Antarctic circle, as large icebergs laden with rock crowd the seas which

wash the ice-bound coast of the Antarctic continent.

When, therefore, we observe large tracts of North and South America, Britain, and Europe overspread by an erratic covering, such as that to which we have referred, we are driven to the conclusion, that they have at a former period been placed under physical conditions similar to those of the Arctic and Antarctic seas of the present day. But waving for the present this point, we must return to one more immediately connected with the subject in hand.

When Dr. Buckland and M. Agassiz, in 1840-1, announced their conviction of the former existence of glaciers amongst the mountainous districts of Britain, their hypothesis obtained a reception by no means new in the history of scientific discovery. It was comparatively easy to grant the lower extension of glaciers amongst the Alps and Pyrenees at a former period, for they were there already, though at higher levels; but the theory which converted Ben Nevis and Mac Dhui, Snowdon and Carnedd Llewellyn, Macgillicuddy's Reeks and Mangerton into miniature Mont Blancs, and transformed their beautiful valleys and coombs into mers de glace, appeared almost as wild as any ever broached by a Galileo, a Columbus, or a Fulton. But what was at first considered a dream of the imagination was soon after received as the sober deduction of scientific reasoning; and the hypothesis is now considered as certain as the revolution of the earth round its axis. Nearly all the well-known marks of glacial agency, as roches montonnées, roches perchés, scratched and grooved surfaces and blocks, lateral and terminal moraines-the latter sometimes forming embankments for lakeshave been shown to exist in a very marked manner and in great abundance by several naturalists, amongst whom we may mention the names of Forbes, Chambers, Mac Laren, Ramsay, and Darwin.*

Gaer Loch, Loch Long, and the islets which stud Loch Lomond and the other lakes of Scotland afford instances of roches montonnées, as stri

king as any in the valleys of the Rhone and the Arve. When the water surface of Loch Lomond is low, or when the turf has lately been removed from the rock surface of the islands, grooves and scratches, generally parallel to the valley, are found to be very deeply graven. With regard to this valley, however, taking into consideration its great width, it is more probable that these groovings have been produced by the friction of small bergs floating in an arm of the sea, which washed the flanks of the surrounding mountains contempora neously with the glaciers which glided down their valleys.

In Wales, the phenomena of roches montonnées with polished and scratched surfaces are common amongst the valleys which flank the loftier hills, amongst which are those of Llanberris, Nant Francon, and the neighbourhood of the Penryn slate quarries. They also exist amongst the Cumbrian valleys; but what is more remarkable, considering its more southern position, these glacial evidences are magnificently exemplified amongst the Kil larney mountains. Along the Black Valley and its tributary gorges these well-defined rock features may be ob served reaching from the bottom of the valley to several hundred feet up the mountain's side, marking the height to which the ice extended. The rocks of the upper lakes, toge ther with those numerous and luxuriant islets which form so charming a feature of the landscape, often by their smoothest elongated surfaces at low water appear like the upturned hulls of ships; and it may be noticed as an invariable rule, that the longer axes of these roches montonnées are parallel to the valley which encloses them. Perched rocks and rude moraines may sometimes be seen; and all these features follow the course of this range of hills to Bantry Bay, proving that at a former period the loftier elevations were covered with perennial snows, which gave birth to radiating streams of ice down the valleys.

It might at first sight be supposed that a lowering of the temperature which admitted of the formation of

glaciers in the British Isles, the Vosges, and regions of North America where they have long disappeared, would be accompanied by a great elevation of the land of those districts. But there is nothing more certain than that the reverse was the case, and that the land of Europe was from 2,500 to 6,000 feet lower than at present. The flat districts which border the Killarney range are covered deep with gravel and great boulders of rock which must have been strewn over the sea by bergs floating out of the glacier valleys. The central districts of England are strewn over with granite boulders derived from Cumberland; the lowlands of Scotland with blocks from the highlands; northern Europe, from the north of France eastward into Russia, with blocks from Scandinavia, some of huge proportions; North America, as far south as lat. 38 deg., according to Sir C. Lyell, with boulders all of northern origin; and the plains of Patagonia, according to Mr. Darwin, with boulders from the Andes, as far north as lat. 41 deg. S. But the erratic phenomena of the Alps are of so interesting a nature that we may refer to them more particularly. The great valley of Switzerland is bounded to the N.E. by the range of the Jura, and along the opposite side by the range of Mont Blanc. The flat bed of the valley is formed of a deposit of Alpine gravel, containing large boulders of granite from the high Alps, two of which rise several feet above the surface of the lake near the Geneva shore. But the most remarkable fact remains. On ascending the flanks of the Jura, we find huge boulders scattered at intervals, or arranged in rude lines at heights of a thousand feet and upwards from the valley of Geneva. These blocks are often many tons in weight, angular, and are composed of granitic and other crystalline rocks only found amongst the higher ranges of the Alps. One of these, called the Pierre à Bot, is figured by Professor Forbes in his work on the Alps. It is no less than forty feet in diameter, and, together with many others in the neighbourhood, must have been carried right across the intervening valley for a

distance of nearly fifty miles! To account for the transportal of these erratics, M. Agassiz, supported by Professor Forbes, suggested that the valley of the Rhone was filled with ice from the Alps to the Jura, across whose surface the blocks were drifted. But upon viewing this great valley, the mind recoils from so alarming an extension of the glacier theory, and we prefer adopting that of Sir C. Lyell, who considers the valley to have been filled with water as an arm of the sea, across which these blocks were carried on rafts of ice derived from the glaciers of the Alpine valleys.

We have similar instances in our own country, but we shall only mention one referred to by Sir C. Lyell.* The Grampians of Perthshire and Forfarshire are from 3,000 to 4,000 feet high. To the south lies the broad and deep Valley of Strathmore, to the south of this again rise the Lidlaw Hills to the height of 1,500 feet and upwards. On the highest summits of this chain, which is formed of sandstone and slate, and at various elevations, are found huge angular fragments of mica schist, some three and others fifteen feet in diameter, which have been conveyed across the Valley of Strathmore, a distance of at least fifteen miles. This is an example similar to that of the Jura blocks; and similar effects are in course in the Greenland seas, those of Tierra del Fuego, South Georgia, and the Ant

arctic continent.

How wonderful the change which has come over the surface of our earth since this glacial period! At that time the higher portions of the British Isles alone were above the sea, and these were covered with perpetual snows, producing glaciers and icebergs. Europe was submerged to a depth of 5,000 or 6,000 feet; the Alps, Pyrenees, Vosges, and the mountains of Norway forming islands with snow-crowned peaks, sending down glaciers to the water's-edge. Nor is it improbable that the Himalayan ranges presented a similar aspect; great bergs of ice floated over the submerged Continent of North America, stranding upon, graving, and polishing its more prominent points; while the Andes formed a

lofty reef of snowy mountains, icebergs from which drifted over the water-covered plains of Patagonia. We may not enter upon the question of the causes which produced these changes, and the great refrigeration of of the earth's temperature. Suffice it to say, that Sir C. Lyell has pointed out that the latter may be fully accounted for by relative changes of land and sea.t The period itself is

known to geologists as the Glacial Epoch, and as one which immediately preceded the present, marked by the introduction of the human race. The all-wise and gracious Creator reserved man for happier times; when, as in the present time, the temperature of our globe is a medium between two extremes of heat and cold, which different configurations of the surface are capable of producing.

"MUNICH!" exclaimed old Mr. G as we were talking of my recent travels in Germany, over the port and walnuts, "ah! how many a strange memory does that one name call up! It was there that life-that is the life of cities-first broke upon me in all its brilliant hollowness; and yet what do I know? Is there more real honesty beside the plough or in the vineyard? Well, no matter, man is man all the world over, but it was not at Munich that I first learnt all the treachery of which man is capable. It was there that I passed some of my happiest hours, and there too that I died."

"Died!" I exclaimed, doubtful whether I heard aright.

"Yes, died,” replied the old gentleman in a calm matter-of-fact tone, so that when I had opened my eyes to the full extent allowed by the School of Design to depict the passion of wonderment, and had asked myself two or three times whether he could possibly mean that he had dyed his whiskers there, or had really talked himself into such an autobiographical state, that he thought it necessary to bring the narrative down to his own decease, I came to the conclusion that my old friend was doting.

"I suppose you speak metaphorically?" I suggested.

66 Not a bit of it. I can understand that you should be surprised when I

say that I died. But it is a fact, literal, positive, and unqualified, at least

; but, not to spoil a good story, suppose I begin at the beginning.”

Now is it not pleasant to hear an old man talk of his youth? Is it not good for us who are entering on life, to learn from one who is leaving it? With one foot in the grave, how calm is the far view he can take of the days of his strength, with all its selfsatisfaction, its worldliness and disappointments. How complete is his experience-how valuable the lesson long since drawn and followed, now recalled and preached.

So then I listened.

the

"It is forty years since I went to Munich. I was attaché to the embassy of that dear Lord Emost popular, because the most amiable and liveliest minister that Bavaria has, perhaps, ever known. I had been turned out into this post from Oxford, at one-and-twenty, and had not so much as seen a single London season. My father's seat, Eton, and the University was all I knew of life, and how little is that! I can say now without vanity, that I was handsome and distinguished. Besides this, I was very ardent and rather romantic, and I had not been three months in Munich before I was in love, yes, desperately in love, with Ida Von Frankenstein, a young countess with a large fortune, and justly the Queen of Beauty in the Bavarian capital.