I do not wonder,
therefore, that those who have looked upon the glacier chiefly with
reference to the physical and mechanical principles involved in its
structure and movement should have found my Natural Philosophy
defective. I am satisfied with their agreement as to my correct
observation of the facts, and am the less inclined to quarrel with the
doubts thrown on my theory since I see that the most eminent physicists
of the day do not differ from me more sharply than they do from each
other. The facts will eventually test all our theories, and they form,
after all, the only impartial jury to which we can appeal. In the mean
while, I am not sorry that just at this moment, when recent
investigations and publications have aroused new interest in the
glaciers, the course of these articles brings me naturally to a
discussion of the subject in its bearing upon geological questions. I
shall, however, address myself especially, as I have done throughout
these papers, to my unprofessional readers, who, while they admire the
glaciers, may also wish to form a general idea of their structure and
mode of action, as well as to know something of the important part they
have played in the later geological history of our earth.
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