THE ICE-FREE REFUGIA OF NORTHWESTERN SCANDINAVIA 



331 



inland ice sheet at least once. Referring to the fact that the erratics are often 

 lying in very unstable positions, Bergstrom suggests (1959, p. 122) that they 

 were transported and deposited during Wurrn time. The proximity of the 

 continental slope does not justify any definite conclusion about nunataks. 

 A number of C^^ datings have been made of samples from this area with the 

 intention of throwing light on this particular problem but in no case a higher 

 age than 9000 years has been obtained. 



10 n u" 



Fig. 4. The North Sea area during the maximum of the Wiirm glaciation, ace. 



to Valentin (1957). 



At this time we do not know the position of the ice-front north of Scandi- 

 navia during the Wlirm maximum. The Barents Sea is quite shallow, with 

 depths seldom exceeding 400 m and over vast areas much less. An ice sheet 

 could easily have covered this region. It has been proposed in recent papers 

 (BiJdel, 1960: Corbel. 1960). that the Scandinavian and Spitsbergen ice 

 sheets joined during Wiirm time. However, only very weak arguments favor- 

 ing this hypothesis have been presented as yet. In 1934, Krasnov found 

 boulders at the Shapkina River in northermost Russia which Likharev and 

 Yakovlev suggested were erratics from Spitsbergen or Bear Island on the 



