But it may be asked, “How could the fauna and flora propagate themselves under such conditions?” The flora itself at the quaternary age was of extreme vigor.  We know this from the little which is left us, but more especially from the presence of a large number of herbivorous animals—­stags, horses, elephants, rhinoceros, etc.—­which animated the plains and valleys of Europe and America at the same time.  Evidently they could not have lived and propagated themselves without abundant vegetation for nourishment and development.

That which has deceived the adherents of the glacial theory, as understood in its absolute sense, is, they have generally placed a too high estimate on its extent and intensity.  It needs but a little effort of the reasoning powers to come to the conclusion that the earth had cooled to the degree that all animal and vegetable life could exist upon it, and that a portion of the earth’s surface permanently covered with snow and ice was absolutely indispensable to the existence, perpetuity, and well-being of animal and vegetable life.  Again, they have attributed to the glaciers the rocks, gravels, and other material which they have found spread here and there long distances from the mountains.  The transportation of the so-called erratic rocks has appeared inexplicable in any other way, and the piles of rock and gravel have been considered so many moraines, that is, deposits of diverse material transported by the glaciers.  They do not regard the probability of other agents taking the place of glaciers, and undervalue the moving power of water.  Water in liquid state has often produced analogous effects, and it has often been the error of the glacialists to confound the one with the other.  The erratic rocks and the moraines are undoubtedly the ordinary indications of the ancient gravels, but, taken isolatedly, they are not sufficient proof.  In order to convince they should be accompanied with a third indication, which is the presence of striated rocks which we find in the neighborhood of our actual glaciers.  When all these signs are together then there is hardly a possibility of error, but one alone is not sufficient, because it can be the effect of another cause.

No doubt the temperature was really lower at the quaternary age and at the epoch generally assigned to man’s advent in European countries, but the difference was not so great as some say.  A lowering of four degrees is sufficient to explain the ancient extension of the glaciers.  We can look on this figure as the maximum, for it is proved to-day that humanity played the main role in the glacial phenomena.  The beds of rivers and the alluvia are there to tell that all the water was not in a solid state at that time, that the glaciers were much more extended than in our days, and that the courses of the rivers were infinitely more abundant.  When this is understood we can reasonably reduce the extension of the ancient