We have thus, as it seems to me, clear evidence in Europe of four
glacial epochs, separated the one from the other by protracted
intervals of genial temperate conditions. So far, one's conclusions
are based on data which cannot be gainsaid, but there are certain
considerations which lead to the suspicion that the whole of the
complex tale has not yet been unravelled, and that the climatic
changes were even more numerous than those that I have indicated. Let
it be noted that glacial conditions attained their maximum during
the earliest of our recognised glacial epochs. With each recurring
cold period the ice-sheets and glaciers successively diminished in
importance. That is one of the outstanding facts with which we have
to deal. Whatever may have been the cause or causes of glacial and
interglacial conditions, it is obvious that those causes, after
attaining a maximum influence, gradually became less effective in their
operation. Such having been the case, one can hardly help suspecting
that our epoch of greatest glaciation may have been preceded by an
alternation of cold and genial stages analogous to those that followed
it. If three cold epochs of progressively diminished severity succeeded
the epoch of maximum glaciation, the latter may have been preceded by
one or more epochs of progressively increased severity. That something
of the kind may have taken place is suggested by the occurrence
of the old moraine of that great Baltic glacier that preceded the
appearance of the most extensive _mer de glace_ of northern Europe.
The old moraine in question, it will be remembered, underlies the
lower diluvium. Unfortunately, the very conditions that attended the
glaciation of Europe render it improbable that any conspicuous traces
of glacial epochs that may have occurred prior to the period of maximum
glaciation could have been preserved within the regions covered by the
great inland-ice. Their absence, therefore, cannot be held as proving
that the lower boulder-clays of Britain and northern Europe are the
representatives of the earliest glacial epoch. The lowest boulder-clay,
I believe, has yet to be discovered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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