rough accumulation of loose materials
indiscriminately thrown together, that we find the ancient moraines
presenting any such appearance. Time, which mellows and softens all the
wrecks of the past, has clothed them with turf, grassed them over,
planted them with trees, sown his seed and gathered in his harvests upon
them, until at last they make a part of the undulating surface of the
country. Were it not for anticipating my story, I could point out many a
green billow, rising out of the fields and meadows immediately about us,
that had its origin in the old ice-time. Thus disguised, they are not so
evident to the casual observer; but, nevertheless, when once familiar
with the peculiar form, character, and position of these rounded ridges
scattered over the face of the country, they are easily recognized.

Of course, the ancient glaciers of Great Britain were far more difficult
to trace than those of Switzerland, where the present glaciers are
guides to the old ones. But, nevertheless, my expectations were more
than answered. The first valley I entered in the glacial regions of
Scotland was barred by a terminal moraine; and throughout the North of
England, as well as in Scotland and Ireland, I found the hill-sides
covered with traces of glacial action, as distinct and unmistakable as
those I had left in my native land. And not only was the surface of the
country polished, grooved, and scratched, as in the region of existing
glaciers, and presenting an appearance corresponding exactly to that
described elsewhere, but we could track the path of the boulders where
they had come down from the hills above and been carried from the mouth
of each valley far down into the plains below. In Scotland and Ireland
the phenomena were especially interesting. I had intended to give in
this article some account of the "parallel roads" of Glenroy, marking
the ancient levels of glacier-lakes, so much discussed in this
connection. But the reminiscences of old friends, and the many
associations revived in my mind by recurring to a subject which I have
long looked upon as a closed chapter, so far as my own researches are
concerned, have constantly led me beyond the limits I had prescribed to
myself in these papers upon glaciers; and as the story of Glenroy and
the phenomena connected with it is a long one, I shall reserve it for a
subsequent number.

* * * * *

BRYANT.

The literary life of Bryant begins