Los Angeles herald., 1893-01-10
LIE CoNTE ON GLACIERS.

An Instructive Lecture on q Prehistoric
Epoch.
Prof. lie Conte continued his lectures
on glaciers before a small but attentive
audience at the Unity church last night.
His talk was continuation of the theo
ries of glacial motion, bringing them up
to date.
During the miocene age the altitude
OF the continent of North America was
lower than now, particularly in the mid
die portion. And the plants which are
the best indication of the climate were
luxurious in their growth and extended
through what is now known as the polar
regions. The climate was warm, moist
and uniform. With such growth of
vegetation it was impossible for there to
have been a polar region, nor was there
existing any polar species. During the
pliocene period there was gradual up
heaving of the continent, which
drained away most of the inland lakes,
and as the altitude increased, the eli
mate became colder. Ice such as exists
today was formed, and arctic specie s
eprang into existence, and as the ice in
creased the temperate species retreated
to the south. The latter part of this
epoch might be called the inauguration
OF the ice age. The elevation and cold
ess still increased during the pliocene
period until, in what is now the United
States, the crust OF the earth had risen
3O00fee above its present elevation.
In the arctic age the continent was
enveloped in an arctic climate and was
covered with thickness of ice in many
places of two inches. The ice was thick
est in a region which formed monster
semi circle running from the central to
the southern part of Canada. From
this region it radiated over the country
in many directions. It's terminal was
Massachusetts, and extended by grad
ual windings across the Uniied States,
reaching the southernmost point in the
Mississippi valley and then northwest
waid through Montana into Colorado
again, then coming southwark, finally
ending in California. In Europe the gla-
ciera radiatsd from the scandinavian
peninsula.
The oscillation of the crust of the ice
and the ending of the ice age was fol-
lowed by corresponding oscillations of
the crust of the earth and change OF
climate. The cause of the breaking up
Oh Cnl6 age WAS IN lH6 law OF acbiOn.
The first elevation OF the land caused
the cold, which caused the ice, and this
led to the extreme artic era. The
wsight of the ice upon the earth was
terrific and caused it to depress. This
led to the gradual increase of the tenn
perature then came the melting of the
ice, then q warmer climate and then the
rise of the earth again. But the cause
Of the Arst elevation of the land is one
of geology's most obscure and least un-
derstood questions.
ga number of theories, including those
of Ball, Darwin and Crowell, in regard
to the glacial period were given. and
further discussion Of them promised at
the next lecture.
1t was announced that the last two
lectures, those on the ice age in Califor-
MIA, would be condensed into one talk
next Wednesday, and on Friday the lee
ture would be entitled, Some Contrasts
Between Material Evolution and HUI
man Progress. This is one of Professor
LIE Conte's latest lectures, and, as it
differs fiom the previous ones of the
course, will doubtless be we'll attended.