[1.  “Popular Science Monthly,” October, 1878, p. 648.

2.  L. P. Gratacap, in “American Antiquarian,” July, 1881, p. 280.

3.  Dawson, “Earth and Man,” p. 261.]

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privilege is now restricted. . . .  Some reasons have been adduced for the belief that in the Miocene and Eocene there were intervals of cold climate; but the evidence of this may be merely local and exceptional, and does not interfere with the broad characteristics of the age."[1]

Sir Edward Belcher brought away from the dreary shores of Wellington Channel (latitude 75° 32’ north) portions of a tree which there can be no doubt whatever had actually grown where be found it.  The roots were in place, in a frozen mass of earth, the stump standing upright where it was probably overtaken by the great winter.[2] Trees have been found, in situ, on Prince Patrick’s Island, in latitude 76° 12’ north, four feet in circumference.  They were so old that the wood had lost its combustible quality, and refused to burn.  Mr. Geikie thinks that it is possible these trees were pre-glacial, and belonged to the Miocene age.  They may have been the remnants of the great forests which clothed that far northern region when the so-called glacial age came on and brought the Drift.

We shall see hereafter that man, possibly civilized man, dwelt in this fair and glorious world—­this world that knew no frost, no cold, no ice, no snow; that he had dwelt in it for thousands of years; that he witnessed the appalling and sudden calamity which fell upon it; and that he has preserved the memory of this catastrophe to the present day, in a multitude of myths and legends scattered all over the face of the habitable earth.

But was it sudden?  Was it a catastrophe?

Again I call the witnesses to the stand, for I ask you, good reader, to accept nothing that is not proved.

In the first place, was it sudden?

[1.  “Earth and Man,” p. 264.

2.  “The Last of the Arctic Voyages,” vol. i, p. 380.]

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One writer says: 

“The glacial action, in the opinion of the land-glacialists, was limited to a definite period, and operated simultaneously over a vast area."[1]

And again: 

“The drift was accumulated where it is by some violent action."[2]

Louis Figuier says: 

“The two cataclysms of which we have spoken surprised Europe at the moment of the development of an important creation.  The whole scope of animated nature, the evolution of animals, was suddenly arrested in that part of our hemisphere over which these gigantic convulsions spread, followed by the brief but sudden submersion of entire continents.  Organic life had scarcely recovered from the violent shock, when a second, and perhaps severer blow assailed it.  The northern and central parts of Europe, the vast countries which extend from Scandinavia to