exceptional, and does not interfere with the broad characteristics of
the age."[1]

Sir Edward Belcher brought away from the dreary shores of Wellington
Channel (latitude 75° 32' north) portions of a tree which there can
be no doubt whatever had actually grown where be found it. The roots
were in place, in a frozen mass of earth, the stump standing upright
where it was probably overtaken by the great winter.[2] Trees have
been found, _in situ_, on Prince Patrick's Island, in latitude 76°
12' north, _four feet in circumference_. They were so old that the
wood had lost its combustible quality, and refused to burn. Mr.
Geikie thinks that it is possible these trees were pre-glacial, and
belonged to the Miocene age. They may have been the remnants of the
great forests which clothed that far northern region when the
so-called glacial age came on and brought the Drift.

We shall see hereafter that man, possibly civilized man, dwelt in
this fair and glorious world--this world that knew no frost, no cold,
no ice, no snow; that he had dwelt in it for thousands of years; that
he witnessed the appalling and sudden calamity which fell upon it;
and that he has preserved the memory of this catastrophe to the
present day, in a multitude of myths and legends scattered all over
the face of the habitable earth.

But was it sudden? Was it a catastrophe?

Again I call the witnesses to the stand, for I ask you, good reader,
to accept nothing that is not _proved_.

In the first place, was it sudden?