If it be true that cold climatic conditions were contemporaneous in
our latitude with submergence, it is equally true that an extensive
land-surface in north-west Europe has, sometimes at least, co-existed
with markedly genial conditions. In Tertiary times, for example, as
the Oligocene deposits of Scotland, the Faröe Islands, Iceland, and
Greenland testify, a land-connection existed between Europe and the
North American continent. Again, it has been shown that during the
interglacial phase of the Pleistocene period Britain was continental,
and enjoyed at the time a peculiarly genial climate. And somewhat
similar geographical and climatic conditions again supervened in
post-glacial times. In other words, when the land was more elevated
and extensive than now, it enjoyed a warmer climate. Nor can we escape
the conclusion that the excavation of the fiord-valleys of northern
latitudes, which is a very old story (far older than the Pleistocene),
was the work not of glaciers but of running water, at a time when
north-western Europe and the corresponding regions of America were much
more elevated than they are now.
Thus there appears to be no evidence either direct or indirect in
favour of the view that glacial conditions were superinduced by
great continental elevation. But it may be argued that even although
no evidence can be cited in proof of such elevation, still, if
the glacial phenomena can be well explained by its means, we may
be justified in admitting it as a working hypothesis. Movements
of elevation and depression have frequently taken place--the
Pleistocene marine deposits themselves testify to oscillations of
the sea-level--and there can be no objection, therefore, to such
postulations as are made by the hypothesis under review. All this
is readily granted, but I deny that the conditions that obtained in
Pleistocene times can be accounted for by elevation and depression. Let
us see how the desiderated elevation of northern lands would work. Were
north-western Europe and the corresponding latitudes of North America
to be upheaved for 3000 feet, and a land-passage to obtain between the
two continents by way of the Faröe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland,
how would the climate be affected? It is obvious that under such
changed conditions the elevated lands in higher latitudes might well
be subjected to more or less extensive glaciation. Norway would become
uninhabitable and glaciers might well appear in the mountain-valleys
of Scotland. But it may be doubted whether the climate of France and
Spain, or the corresponding latitudes of North America, would be
much affected. For were a land-passage to appear between Britain and
Greenland no Arctic current would flow into the North Atlantic, while
no portion of the Gulf Stream would be lost in Arctic seas. The North
Atlantic would then form a great gulf round which a warm ocean-current
would circulate. The temperature of that sea, therefore, would be
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