expeditions would certainly, if laid down on a line, occupy an extent of _a thousand English miles_; and if any former glacial period had existed in this region, there ought to have been some trace to be observed of erratic blocks, or other formations which distinguish glacial action. But this has not been the case. In the strata, whose length I have reckoned alone, I have not found a single fragment of a foreign rock so large as a child's head."[19] Now it is quite impossible to ignore or evade the force of this testimony as to the continuous warm climates of the north temperate and polar zones throughout Tertiary times. The evidence extends over a vast area, both in space and time, it is derived from the work of the most competent living geologists, and it is absolutely consistent in its general tendency. We have in the Lower Cretaceous period an almost tropical climate in France and England, a somewhat lower temperature in the United States, and a mild insular climate in the Arctic regions. In each successive period the climate becomes somewhat less tropical; but down to the Upper Miocene it remains warm temperate in Central Europe, and cold temperate within the polar area, with not a trace of any intervening periods of Arctic cold. It then gradually cools down and merges through the Pliocene into the glacial epoch in Europe, while in the Arctic zone there is a break in the record between the Miocene and the recent glacial deposits.[20] {79} Accepting this as a substantially correct account of the general climatic aspect of the Tertiary period in the northern hemisphere, let us see whether the principles we have already laid down will enable us to give a satisfactory explanation of its causes.