Ragnarok : the age of fire and gravel

8 THE DRIFT.

CHAPTER If. THE ORIGIN OF THE DRIFT NOT KNOWN.

WutE several different origins have been assigned for the phenomena known as “the Drift,” and while one or two of these have been widely accepted and taught in our schools as established truths, yet it is not too much to say that no one of them meets all the requirements of the case, or is assented to by the profoundest thinkers of our day.

Says one authority :

“The origin of the unstratified drift is a question which has been much controyerted.” *

Louis Figuier says,+ after considering one of the proposed theories :

“No such hypothesis is sufficient to explain either the cataclysms or the glacial phenomena; and we need not hesitate to confess our ignorance of this strange, this mysterious episode in the history of our globe. . . . Nevertheless, we repeat, no explanation presents itself which can be considered conclusive ; and in science we should never be afraid to say, Z do not know.”

Geikie says : “Many geologists can not yet be persuaded that till has ever formed and accumulated under ice.” {

A recent scientific writer, after summing up all the facts and all the arguments, makes this confession :

* “ American Cyclopedia,” vol. vi, p. 112. + “The World before the Deluge,” pp. 435, 463, } “The Great Ice Age,” p. 370.