At first, the speculations of such men as Dr. Buckland upon the ice-markings excited derision, and led to the publication of caricatures. Next, when its claims could not be set aside, some thought it the same with the flood of Noah, and others believed it to represent the chaos supposed to have pervaded space just before the advent of man. Then it was fashionable to believe in a submergence of the land by an ocean freighted with enormous icebergs, floating southerly from the pole. After this the battle raged fiercely between the advocates of icebergs and glaciers, the odds resulting in favor of the glacialists.
Source: wiktionary