At Bloomington, Illinois, pieces of wood were found one hundred and twenty-three feet below the surface, in sinking a shaft.[2]

And it is a very remarkable fact that none of these Illinois clays contain any fossils.[3]

The inference, therefore, is irresistible that the clay, thus unfossiliferous, fell upon and inclosed the trees while they were yet growing.

These facts alone would dispose of the theory that the Drift was deposited upon lands already covered with water.  It is evident, on the contrary, that it was dry land, inhabited land, land embowered in forests.

On top of the Norwich crag, in England, are found the remains of an ancient forest, “showing stumps of trees standing erect with their roots penetrating an ancient soil."[4] In this soil occur the remains of many extinct species of animals, together with those of others still living; among these may be mentioned the hippopotamus, three species of elephant, the mammoths, rhinoceros, bear, horse, Irish elk, etc.

In Ireland remains of trees have been found in sand-beds below the till.[5]

Dr. Dawson found a hardened peaty bed under the bowlder-clay, in Canada, which “contained many small roots and branches, apparently of coniferous trees allied to the spruces."[6] Mr. C. Whittlesey refers to decayed

[1.  “Smithsonian Contributions,” vol. xv.

2.  “Geology of Illinois,” vol. iv, p. 179.

3.  “The Great Ice Age,” p. 387.

4.  Ibid., p. 340.  “Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science,” vol. vi, p. 249.

5.  “Acadian Geology,” p. 63.]

{p. 49}

leaves and remains of the elephant and mastodon found below and in the drift in America.[1]

“The remains of the mastodon, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and elephant are found in the pre-glacial beds of Italy."[2]

These animals were slaughtered outright, and so suddenly that few escaped: 

Admiral Wrangel tells us that the remains of elephants, rhinoceroses, etc., are heaped up in such quantities in certain parts of Siberia that “he and his men climbed over ridges and mounds composed entirely of their bones."[3]

We have seen that the Drift itself has all the appearance of having been the product of some sudden catastrophe: 

“Stones and bowlders alike are scattered higgledy-piggledy, pell-mell, through the clay, so as to give it a highly confused and tumultuous appearance.”

Another writer says: 

“In the mass of the ‘till’ itself fossils sometimes, but very rarely, occur.  Tusks of the mammoth, reindeer-antlers, and fragments of wood have from time to time been discovered.  They almost invariably afford marks of having been subjected to the same action as the stones and bowlders by which they are surrounded."[4]

Another says: 

“Logs and fragments of wood are often got at great depths in the buried gorges."[5]