The record-union., 1898-12-27

ti0n and QenudatiOn and more deeply
covered with vegetable mould, as we
recede either in altitude or latitude
from the living glacier Nowhere is
this better marked than at Uniform
levels above the sea on the west coast
Of North America. Here in latitude 40
to 45 degrees, the geologist finds types
Of topography built up or shaped by
ice action, yet so modified and buried
beneath successive growths of conifers
that only the trained eye of the close
observer can follow the forms and
features. In the next few degrees
ncrthward, the work of the glacier is
less modified and hence more distinct.
Great forests tower over and grow upon
successive generations of fallen trees,
which rest upon glacial debris. Still
further north, and at the same gen.
eral elevations above the sea, these
forests grow upon a thinner layer of
| dead and rotting trunks and the
humuS is less thick. Still more north
ward yet, these forest trees are found
| in the prime and vigor of full growth
mo aged and fallen trunks cucumber
| the ground, the roots of the living trees
are buried in the gravelly, rocky soil
of moraines and thin layer of de-
composing vegetable matter covers the
ground Where there is no morainic
material, the thin soil gives scant
roothold, and an upturned root some
times uncovers fresh glacial scratches.
From commanding positions, the gilt
tering glacier can be seen, and as he
nears its front, the observer is forced
to note that the forests are of young
a nd half fhQn, nllnpG-
and finally the very seedlings sprout
from the freshly uncovered gravel of
the matchless glaciers of British Col
umbia and Alaska.
Now and then these young forests are
uprooted and plowed under by a tenn
porary advance of the glacier, and its
gradual retreat will sometimes reveal
the crushed roots and trunks of pre-
vious advance. But the integral of
successive retreats is greater than the.
| integral of successive advances, and
the forest has for thousands Of years
kept an accurate record of the fact,
although successive generations Of
dead trunks, whose decay has been re-
| tarded by the moist climate OF the
| locality, have been necessary to keep
| the records. In making the observa- :
tons one has to traverse twenty de-
grees Of latitude, but the observations
are only typical of what can be OBJ
served in a few thousand feet of ele-
walton upon the slopes of Mt. Ken1a,
the Equadorian Andes, or other gla-
cier-crowned peak of any latitude.
| Above the timber line, the physical
evidences of glacier retreat present
the same gradations of distinctness as
we recede from the active glacier.
The fact that the evidence of glacial
retreat grows progressively fainter as
we recede from the living glacier,
either in latitude or elevation, marks
progressive retreat from the equator
polewards and from sea level upwards;
since it is progressive it must be ac-
counted for by progressive laws now
active and suppositions of upheayal
and depression and other hypotheses
are not necessary. The areas over
which the ice invasions once extended
may and probably will be Wrangled
over for generations to come, but no
geologist nor physicist, who will take
the trouble to observe a single glacier
and to read what others have recorded,
can dispute nor deny the fact that gla-
cial extension has within a compare
lively recent period been vastly more
extensive at all latitudes than it is at
present, and that successive retreat has
been a.marked characteristic Of glacial
conditions during the present era or
geological time. The fact that glacial
conditions are giving place to mllder
temperatures is recorded in all lat1-
tudes, and wherever glacial ice yet
rests this record, although slightly
fluctuating one, is being leglbly IN
scribed The bare citation Of the facts
establishes the Interpretation that solar
energy is rewarning our planet after
| the chill of the Ice Of Ages-that the
mean temperatures of the climatic
zones now betting the earth have risen
since that age, and that this rise is
yet in progress.
WIDESPREAD CONDITION OF THE
| TERTIARY.
| throughout the whole of the northern
hemisphere which has been reached by
geologists, fossil fora and fauna have
been found which establish the fact
that during the tertiary warm temper
ate conditions prevailed. During the
middle tertiary, palms fiourished Well
within the Arctic Zone. Buried in bogs
and mingled with gravel and boulders,
the bones of gigantic mammals are
found in tropical Brazil. These gigantic
mammals and other types of life cor
respond with those found in Alaska, or
| in Patagonia; tertiary life in Siberia
| re .or Is the same temperatures as that
on the shores Of the Mediterranean, so
that from nearly one polar circle to the
other, we are called upon to note, not
only a once greater glacial extension,
but also preceding temperate age.
The evidence of the existence Of the one
| is no less conclusive than that of the
| existence of the other. Evidence of the
temperate age everywhere precedes the
Eevidence of the Ice Age. In some regions
| the Ice Age yet exists, but beneath the
| ice is found evidence which establishes
| the prior existence of milder climates.
TROPICAL CONDITIONS OF THE
MESOZOIC AND PALAEO-
| ZOIC AGES.
| During the Jurasic ammonites -four
ished well up to the polar circles, and
how much further geological research
has not yet been able to determine. tt
would be useless to recite to the young
est students in geology the facts which
could be massed to prove the universal
distribution of the tropical fora and
| fauna Of the Mesozoic and Palaeozoic
Ages. The manuals and textbooks OF
geology are overburdened with illustra-
tions. That an age of tropical climates
existed prior to the temperate age may
be considered a geological fact, as it is