drift-deposits there found.

In brief, the Drift is _not_ found where ice must have been, and _is_
found where ice could not have been; the conclusion, therefore, is
irresistible that the Drift is not due to ice.

{p. 43}

CHAPTER VII.

THE DRIFT A GIGANTIC CATASTROPHE.

IN the first place, the Drift fell upon a fair and lovely world, a
world far better adapted to give happiness to its inhabitants than
this storm-tossed planet on which we now live, with its endless
battle between heat and cold, between sun and ice.

The pre-glacial world was a garden, a paradise; not excessively warm
at the equator, and yet with so mild and equable a climate that the
plants we now call tropical flourished within the present Arctic
Circle. If some future daring navigator reaches the north pole and
finds solid land there, he will probably discover in the rocks at his
feet the fossil remains of the oranges and bananas of the pre-glacial
age.

That the reader may not think this an extravagant statement, let me
cite a few authorities.

A recent writer says: