y done with for good and all, but that no
geologists nowadays believe in it. If a more careful study of the
glacial phenomena has led most geologists to abandon what I might call
the "marine view" in favour of the terrestrial one, a more careful study
of the fauna and flora will, I venture to think, have the opposite
effect. However, it appears that even from a purely geological point of
view more can be said in favour of the old theory than Professor Geikie
and his school are ready to admit. Thus we are told by Professor Bonney
(p. 280), in referring to the boulder-clay, that "the singular mixture
and apparent crossing of the paths of boulders are less difficult to
explain on the hypothesis of distribution by floating ice than on that
of transport by land-ice, because, in the former case, though the drift
of winds and currents would be generally in one direction, both might be
varied at particular seasons. So far as concerns the distribution and
thickness of the glacial deposits, there is not much to choose between
either hypothesis; but on that of land-ice it is extremely difficult to
explain the intercalation of perfectly stratified sands and gravel and
of boulder-clay, as well as the not infrequent signs of bedding in the
latter." "Anything," writes Professor Cole (p. 239), "that keeps open
the position maintained by Lyell and others, that extensive glaciation
is compatible with mild and sheltered nooks and corners, and that much
of the distribution of boulder-clay was performed in seas and not on
land, may be welcomed by rationalists, at any rate until further
research has been carried on among the Arctic glaciers. At present every
year brings evidence of modern marine boulder-clays in high latitudes,
and removes us farther and farther from belief in a _moraine profonde_."
That foraminifera are occasionally found in boulder-clay has been known
for a long time, but it is only within recent years that these marine
organisms have been shown to occur in so many localities, that Mr.
Wright, who examined a large number of samples, says (p. 269), "I am
forced to the conclusion that the Scottish as well as the Irish
boulder-clay is a true marine sedimentary deposit."

In the fourth and fifth chapters I shall return to this subject again,
and mention a number of facts of distribution which appear to me much
easier of explanation by means of the marine than by the land-ice
theory. But I do not propose to go into further geolo