Ragnarok : the age of fire and gravel

12 THE DRIFT.

and we may search the detritus that beaches and rivers push along their beds, but we shall not find any stones at all resembling those of the till.” *

But we need not discuss any further this theory. It is now almost universally abandoned.

We know of no way in which such waves could be formed ; if they were formed, they could not find the material to carry over the land ; if they did find it, it would not have the markings which are found in the Drift, and it would possess marine fossils not found in the Drift ; and the waves would not and could not scratch and groove the rock-surfaces underneath the Drift, as we know they are scratched and grooved.

Let us then dismiss this hypothesis, and proceed to the consideration of the next.

* “The Great Ice Age,” p. 69.