GLACIERS DE LA SUISSE ET DU PAYS DE GALLES

just as a skilful antiquary, from the wreckof some castle or abky

of Ihe Middle Ages, can in his mind's eye conjure up the sembkmce

of wat it was when entire , so the geologist , from the signs before

him, can truthfully restore whole Systems of glaciers that oncefillt^!

the valleys of North Wales*.

Ancien, gtocier. de j| ^g g^j ^j^^g^ ^j^j j^^j ^ ^j^^^ rclatioD îh Timc îs tbere

la SoiiM et glaciers ^ ^ '

du Pay* de Galle., betwecn thc old glaciers of Switzerland and thoseof Wales ? The ek-

ments from which to altempt a solution of this question are few. First , it may be said that the signs of glaciation in the former extension of still existing Swiss glaciers, are not only identical in al! respects with those of the extincl glaciers of Wales , but also tha: in many an Alpine valley ail the ice marks remain, even when d« diminished glacier still holds ils place amid îts uppermosl recesses. Thèse in ail respects may be compared to the ancient glaciers of ibe neighbouring Jura, the Vosges, or of Wales. Again, when we cunsider that the great old glaciers of the Oberland apparently openei] out on the hroad drifl-covered territory that extends northwai'd to the Jura , tbere is another point of resemblance. So simiiar in gênerai structure and in ail its adjuncts is this Drift with that of the north of Europe, that 1 see no reason whatever to doubt their ideo- * tity. To add weight to this opinion , I may quote the high autority of Mr. Smitlft of Jordan Hill , who informed me, that he recollées seeing in the muséum at Berne , a neglected collection of shelU which he believes to be Swiss, arctic in their grouping, and s\ibfossil^ like those of our Newer Pliocène beds; and in the muséum at Geneva a simiiar collection, among which' was Mya Vdivalefisis* . Further, it is well known that in the more superficial deposils associaled with thèse , the bones of the great hairy éléphant (E. primigenius)j and other mammalian remains, occur by the Lake of Geneva ; near Zurich , and in other places. Besides thèse circumstances, though no one that I know of bas yet proved the plougbin^ of drift out of the mouths of Swiss valleys by the older and largt^r glaciers, yet in evei7 other respect the conditions are so identical.

* And in like manner of the Highlands of Scotiand , and of Irdand , and Uw moastains of the Vosges. See Hftsmrd and P»llfl— -A— et. Coup d*€eU mr U ferra» erratiqtte du Vo9get^ 1848.

' See also Journal of the Geological Society, vol. xii , p. itO.

Glaciers (le rHymaliya.