other marine animals, in the Mediterranean and in the seas of
Japan, areas now separated by a continent and by nearly a hemisphere of
equatorial ocean.
These cases of relationship, without identity, of the inhabitants of
seas now disjoined, and likewise of the past and present inhabitants of
the temperate lands of North America and Europe, are inexplicable on
the theory of creation. We cannot say that they have been created
alike, in correspondence with the nearly similar physical conditions of
the areas; for if we compare, for instance, certain parts of South
America with the southern continents of the Old World, we see countries
closely corresponding in all their physical conditions, but with their
inhabitants utterly dissimilar.
But we must return to our more immediate subject, the Glacial period. I
am convinced that Forbes s view
may be largely extended. In Europe we have the plainest evidence of the
cold period, from the western shores of Britain to the Oural range, and
southward to the Pyrenees. We may infer, from the frozen mammals and
nature of the mountain vegetation, that Siberia was similarly affected.
Along the Himalaya, at points 900 miles apart, glaciers have left the
marks of their former low descent; and in Sikkim, Dr. Hooker saw maize
growing on gigantic ancient moraines. South of the equator, we have
some direct evidence of former glacial action in New Zealand; and the
same plants, found on widely separated mountains in this island, tell
the same story. If one account which has been published can be trusted,
we have direct evidence of glacial action in the south-eastern corner
of Australia.
Looking to America; in the northern half, ice-borne fragments of rock
have been observed on the eastern side as far south as lat. 36 -37 ,
and on the shores of the Pacific, where the climate is now so
different, as far south as lat. 46 deg; erratic boulders have, also,
been noticed on the Rocky Mountains. In the Cordillera of Equatorial
South America, glaciers once extended far below their present level. In
central Chile I was astonished at the structure of a vast mound of
detritus, about 800 feet in height, crossing a valley of the Andes; and
this I now feel convinced was a gigantic moraine, left far below any
existing glacier. Further south on both sides of the continent, from
lat. 41 to the southernmost extremity, we have the clearest evidence
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