Ragnarok : the age of fire and gravel

48 : THE DRIFT,

upon the “‘hard-pan” or “till,” in a well dug at Columbia, Ohio.*

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

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

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.”* 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, ete.

In Ireland remains of trees have been found in sandbeds below the till.||

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.”“ Mr. C. Whittlesey refers to decayed

* “Smithsonian Contributions,” vol. xv.

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

t “The Great Ice Age,” p. 387.

* Thid., p. 340.

|| “ Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science,” vol. vi, p. 249. 4“ Acadian Geology,” p. 63,