HKB
of rock, not fixed in ice, and moving as freely as they do when simply swept along by a muddy current, do not give rise to such scratches and furrows.
M. Kjerulf of Christiania, in a paper lately communicated to the Geological Society of Berlin,* has objected, and perhaps with reason, to what he considers the undue extent to which I have, in some of my writings, supposed the mountains of northern Europe, to have been submerged during the glacial period.
(* "Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft" Berlin 1860.)
He remarks that the signs of glacial action on the Scandinavian mountains ascend as high as 6000 feet, whereas fossil marine shells of the same period never reach elevations exceeding 600 feet. The land, he says, may have been much higher than it now is, but it has evidently not been much lower since the commencement of the glacial period, or marine shells would be traceable to more elevated points. In regard to the absence of marine shells, I shall point out in the sequel how small is the dependence we can place on this kind of negative evidence, if we desire to test by it the extent to which the land has been submerged. I cannot therefore consent to limit the probable depression and re-elevation of Scandinavia to 600 feet. But that the larger part of the glaciation of that country has been supramarine, I am willing to concede. In support of this view M. Kjerulf observes that the direction of the furrows and striae, produced by glacial abrasion, neither conforms to a general movement of floating ice from the Polar regions, nor to the shape of the existing valleys, as it would do if it had been caused by independent glaciers generated in the higher valleys after the land had acquired its actual shape. Their general arrangement and apparent irregularities are, he contends, much more in accordance with the hypothesis of there having been at one time a universal covering of ice over the whole of Norway and Sweden, like that now existing in Greenland, which, being annually recruited by fresh falls of snow, was continually pressing outwards and downwards to the coast and lower regions, after crossing many of the lower ridges, and having no relation to the minor depressions, which were all choked up with ice and reduced to one uniform level.
In support of this view, he appeals to the admirable description of the continental ice of Greenland, lately published by Dr. H. Rink of Copenhagen,* who resided three or four years in the Danish settlements in Baffin's Bay, on the west coast of Greenland, between latitudes 69 and 73 degrees north.
(* "Journal of Royal Geographical Society" volume 23 1853 page 145.)
"In that country, the land," says Dr. Rink, "may be divided into two regions, the 'inland' and the 'outskirts.' The 'inland,' which is 800 miles from west to east, and of much greater length from north to south, is a vast unknown continent, buried under one continuous and colossal mass of permanent ice, which is always moving seaward, but a small proportion only of it in an easterly direction, since nearly the whole descends towards Baffin's Bay." At the heads of the fjords which intersect the coast, the ice is seen to rise somewhat abruptly from the level of the sea to the height of 2000 feet, beyond which the ice of the interior rises continuously as far as the eye can reach, and to an unknown altitude. All minor ridges and valleys are levelled and concealed, but here and there steep mountains protrude abruptly from the icy slope, and a few superficial lines of stones or moraines are visible at seasons when no recent snow has fallen. [23]