The Origin of Glacial Drifts

Abstract

IT is continually brought to the notice of geologists that the most recent period in the long history of the earth is also that which excites the greatest controversy. We can deal complacently with earth-movements, mountain-thrusts, and submergences of half a continent, so long as the organisms affected by these occurrences are less specialised mammals than ourselves; but we find it hard to believe in great physical or climatic changes within the limits of our own written or unwritten history. Moreover, our knowledge of the post-Pliocene period is burdened with an excess of detail; and broad and sweeping generalisations seem at present out of the question. And, if we go one step further, we may fairly attribute our friendly agreement with regard to the conditions of the older periods to our ignorance rather than to our information.

The Canadian Ice-Age.

By Sir J. William Dawson (Montreal: William V. Dawson. New York and London: The Scientific Publishing Company, 1893.)