Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-12-06
THE NEW GLACIAL THEORY OF
AGASSIZ,

richest lOauy sohi
greatest crops of produce, which are
destitute of animal remains, are in fact
soils ground up and deposited by glacier
action, the results, in fact, Of the i'm
mensely expansive force Of water in
freezing.
Prof. Agassiz, born in Switzerland,
had long studied the glaciers of the
Alps, of which there are about four hum
dred, between Mont Blanc and the bor-
ders of the Tyrol, several Of which are
ten to twenty miles in length and
one TO two in breadth. They are formed
between the mountains Of these regions
by immense accumulations of snow,
which thaw in the sun and freeze again
in the shade, forming icebergs, diwdyS
moring and grinding up the rocks and
earth by their expansive power-always
melting at the bottom, and forming
mountains and streams there, yet fed
ever at the top by fresh SHOWS, so as
never to diminish, but always keep
moving and carrying down and depos-
iting uorGines or deposits of earth and
rock. 1t has long been known that the
whole Of Europe must have been sub
jected to glacial action; that the pecu-
liar yellow loan which makes the fields
of Belgium so immensely fertile-all the
''loess," as it is called, of the valley OF
the Rhine, and wen of the Danube, is
nothing but an impalpable mud formed
by the grinding work of glaciers and de-
posted by their melting waters. But
few were prepared for so sweeping an
extension of this theory to the North,
and more especially to the South Amer
lean continent, as unfolded by Agassiz
in his lectures on Brazil.
After all that Lyell had written in his
recent and invaluable work on the An
,iquity of Man, the speculations now
being preached in these lectures are
interesting in the highest degree. Agas-
siz supposes that about fifteen thousand
feet of snow must have covered the
northern hemisphere of America at one
time, leaving in Mount Washington, in
New Hampshire, marks Of a glacial &C
ton to this day, sir thousand feet high.
This glacial action has been traced
southwark in North America as far at
least as North Carolina, and how much
farther it will be traced non can say.
But in Brazil he has again found proofs
of the existence of a wall office at least
seven hundred feet high, that must have
damned up the mouth of the Amazon.
He believes that there must have been
an immense glacier, three thousand
miles long, by from three to eight hun
dred miles wide, at least. This glacial
period, he supposes, could only have
originated when the air was in some
way charged with an amount of mois-
ture unknown now. "There must have
been an immense kettle" he says, "to
boil so much moisture" Submarine
volcanoes he considers the agency which
caused such an immense evaporation.
The condensation Of this produced that
immense amount of snow and the whole
Of those glaciers, which produced this
polar cold on the line of the equator
itself. How long continued was this
action can only be conjectured from the
effects. From the melting Of these gla-
ciers in the Valley of the Amazon there
was produced first a bed of laminated
clay, fifteen to twenty feet thick, de-
posted when the water vas quiet and
without any current, from the glacier
beginning to melt at the bottom. Then
on top Of this, when the waters Of the
melting snow began to run, there was
deposited a layer of stratifed red sand
stone, one thousand feet thick, over the
whole valley, most Of which was after
ward washed off by the retiring waters.
Then, when quiet and tranquility were
restored, there was deposited the whole
of that fertile loan which makes that
part of Brazil the most rich in produc-
tive power known on earth, and Of great
thickness. If these deposits had been
formed at the bottom Of the sea, there
would have been some shells or bones
or traces of marine life, or if by a fresh
watar lake, the same. But the entire
absence of vegetable or animal remains
in these deposites proves that they were
formed by melting ice. In Maine it had
been perceived that icebergs must at
one time have hoated from Mount Desert,
1900 feet high. At Albany, N. Y, the
traces of glacial action are equally clear.
The Connecticut river had been much
higher and broader, and in the Missis-
sippi it was plain that when the ice
melted the whole valley was filled from
the Rocky Mountains to the Appala-
chan range. And as the area was grad
ually occupied by ice, terraces would
be formed, and then lower terraces, until
the rivers came down to their present
levels. The advantage of the study Of
the Amazon was that its level had not
been disturbed. There was, indeed, a
time when the Atlantic flowed up to and
washed the foot Of the Andes, but not
since or during the glacial period. The
levels are all the same, and the denuda-
ton is the most extensive of any known.
Such is the present theory now being
developed by Professor Agassiz. 1t is
just at the close of the glacial period
that the first decided traces of man on
earth have so far been discovered, though
it is now beginning to be supposed that
in the south Of France human relics of
as yet higher antiquity have been found.
Born PARTIES CoNrEST.-Takingt them