of the grandest mountain-sights I ever looked on: such
a purple hush over the vast level below us; such colossal broad shadows
on the giant's foot; such a wonderful flame on that noble, solitary
head, which, but for the unbroken outlines leading up to it out of the
twilight, might have been only some loftier cloud catching good-night
sun-glimpses at half-way up the firmament. Goodnight from Shasta! Alas,
not only to the sun, but to us! We felt a real pang, as we confessed to
ourselves that we were now looking upon this noblest and serenest, if
not loftiest, of all the mountains in our travel, for the last time in
years,--perhaps the last forever. We gazed wistfully till admonished by
the deepening twilight; then, as Shasta became a shadow on the horizon,
plunged silently into the dense woods again, climbed to the Siskiyou
summit, and, descending through almost jetty darkness, were in Oregon.

ICE-PERIOD IN AMERICA.

In the autumn of 1846, six years after my visit to Great Britain in
search of glaciers, I sailed for America. When the steamer stopped at
Halifax, eager to set foot on the new continent so full of promise for
me, I sprang on shore and started at a brisk pace for the heights above
the landing. On the first undisturbed ground, after leaving the town, I
was met by the familiar signs, the polished surfaces, the furrows and
scratches, the _line-engraving_ of the glacier, so well known in the Old
World; and I became convinced of what I had already anticipated as the
logical sequence of my previous investigations, that here also this
great agent had been at work, although it was only after a long
residence in America, and repeated investigations of the glacial
phenomena in various parts of the country, that I fully understood the
universality of its action. A detailed description of these appearances
could hardly be more than a monotonous repetition of my statements
respecting their existence in other regions; but the peculiar
configuration of this continent, as compared with the more mountainous
countries of Europe and Asia, has led to some modifications of the same
phenomena here, worthy of special notice.

Thus far, the traces of ancient glaciers in America have been studied
only east of the Rocky Mountains; little is known of the glaciers still
remaining in the high mountain-ranges dividing the eastern part of the
continent from California, still less respecting any indications of
their former extens