Rink, of Copenhagen (formerly one of the naturalists of the royal Danish war-vessel ' Galatea,' in her voyage round the world under the command of Admiral Steen-Bille, but, until recently, and for many years previously, Royal Inspector of South Greenland), translated in the ' Journal of the Royal Geographical Society '1 , though the facts were known long previously to his placing them before English geographers in a clear light. Accordingly, thanks to the labours of Smith of Jordanhill 2 , Lyell 3 , Chambers 4 , Milne-Home 5 , Darwin 6 , Fleming 7 , Murchison 8 , Peach 9 , Jamieson 10 , Ramsay 11 , Thomas Brown 12 , Crosskey 13 , Page 14 , McBain 15 , Howden 16 , Jolly 17 , Archibald Geikie 18 , James Geikie 19 , and many other geologists, we are in possession of a body of facts which enable us to reason on the subject with a degree of certainty which would otherwise have been impossible. First, then, it will be necessary to examine in a concise manner the subject of the present glaciation of Greenland and other Arctic countries, and ice-action generally.
Previously to doing so, I may say that I have enjoyed opportunities of studying ice-action in British Columbia, Washington Territory, Oregon, California, &c, and on the Western and Eastern shores of Davis Straits and Baffin's Bay — that I have voyaged over the seas of Spitzbergen and Greenland— that I have passed a whole
1 Vol. xxiii. p. 145 (1853) ; Proc. of Soc. vol. vii. p. 76 (1863).
2 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. vi. ; Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society, vol. viii. ; and ' Newer Pliocene Geology.'
3 Proc. Geol. Soc. vol. iii. ; ' Antiquity of Man ;' 'Elements' and 'Principles,' &c. &c.
4 ' Ancient Sea Margins,' and Edin. New Phil. Journ. 1853 & 1855.
5 ' Coal-fields of Mid-Lothian ; ' Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. vol. xvi. ; ibid. vol. xxv. 1869, &c.
6 Phil. Trans. 1839.
7 ' The Geological Deluge, as interpreted by Baron Cuvier and Prof. Buckland, inconsistent with the testimony of Moses and the Phenomena of Nature ; ' ' Lithology of Edinburgh,' &c.
8 Brit. Assoc. Rep. vol. xx. ; Proc. R. G. S. vol. vii. ' Russia in Europe,' &c. &c.
9 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society Edin. 1861 ; Edin. New Phil. Journ. n. s. vol. ii. &c.
10 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vols. xiv. xvi. xviii. xix. and xxiv.
11 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xviii. ; ' Glaciers of Wales,' &c.
12 Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. vol. xxiv.
13 Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasgow, vols. ii. & iii.
14 Various systematic publications, &c.
15 Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edin. 1859-1862.
16 Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. and Trans. Geol. Soc. Edin. vol. i.
17 Trans. Geol. Soc. Edin. vol. i.
18 'Scenery of Scotland;' Edin. New Phil. Journ. 1861 ; Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasgow, vols. i. iii. Ac.
19 Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasgow, vol. iii. That this list by no means exhausts the names of those who by their writings have advanced the subject, or contains all the papers of those mentioned, is self evident. The names of Bald, Imrie, Hall, MacCulloch, Dick-Lauder, Trevelyan, J. D. and E. Forbes, Hibbert, Maxwell, Prestwich, Maclaren, Craig, Landsborough, Mackenzie, Jas. Thomson, Nicol, Gumming, Cleghorn, Smith, Miller, Hopkins, Brickenden, Bryce, Martin, Hall, Macintosh, Murphy, Lubbock, the Duke of Argyll, and others are familiar as having done good service ; but I have only referred to the papers which have come immediately before me.
