A great advocate of the glacier theory has said that we cannot properly appreciate his view without exploring thoroughly the present glaciers of Greenland and ascertaining their effects. This I have not had opportunity to do, but I have endeavoured to do the next best thing by passing as rapidly as possible from the icebergs of Belle-Isle to the glaciers of Mont Blanc, and by asking the question whether Canada was in the Pleistocene period like the present Belle-Isle or the present Mont Blanc, or whether it partook of the character of both? and taking advantage of these two most salient points in order to elicit a reply. Transporting ourselves, then, to the monarch of the Alps, let us suppose we stand upon the Flegere, a spur of the mountains fronting Mont Blanc, and commanding a view of the entire group. From this point the western end of the range presents the rounded summit of Mont Blanc proper, flanked by the lower eminences of the Dome and Aiguille de Gouté, which rise from a broad and uneven plateau of _nevé_ or hard snow, sending down to the plain two great glaciers or streams of ice, the Bossons and Tacony glaciers. Eastward of Mont Blanc the _nevé_ or snow plateau is penetrated by a series of sharp points of rock or aiguilles, which stretch along in a row of serried peaks, and then give place to a deep notch, through which flows the greatest of all the glaciers of this side of Mont Blanc, the celebrated Mer de Glace, directly in front of our standpoint. To the left of this is another mass of aiguilles, culminating in the Aiguille Verte. This second group of needles descends into the long and narrow Glacier of Argentiere, and beyond this we see in the distance the Glacier and Aiguille de Tour. As seen from this point, it is evident that the whole system of the Mont Blanc glaciers originates in a vast mantle of snow capping the ridge of the chain, and extending about twenty miles in length, with a breadth of about five miles. This mass of snow being above the limits of perpetual frost, would go on increasing from year to year, except so far as it might be diminished by the fall of avalanches from its sides, were it not that its plasticity is sufficient to enable the frozen mass to glide slowly down the valleys, changing in its progress into an icy stream, which, descending to the plain, melts at its base and discharges itself in a torrent of white muddy water. The Mont Blanc chain sends forth about a dozen of large glaciers of this kind, besides many smaller ones. Crossing the valley of Chamouni, and ascending the Montanvert to a height of about 6,000 feet, let us look more particularly at one of these glaciers, the Mer de Glace. It is a long valley with steep sides, about half a mile wide, and filled with ice, which presents a general level or slightly inclined surface, traversed with innumerable transverse cracks or crevasses, penetrating apparently to the bottom of the glacier, and with slippery sloping edges of moist