33 



affirm," says Mr. Robert Chambers, "that if a Glacial sea was the 

 main condition of the surface of the present northern continents during 

 this first Pleistocene epoch, the ice was exhibited in a volume prodigiously 

 beyond all present examples. The ice of this epoch was in masses 

 of sufficient extent and depth, to embrace, holdfast, and work upon large 

 irregular surfaces, whole provinces of the present world, which it moulded 

 down into certain outlines, partly determined by the character of the 

 subjacent rooks. In what is now Scotland, mountains up to at least three 

 thousand feet, and connected valleys of many miles in width, were 

 undoubtedly swept, worn, and moulded by one connected movement of 

 this mighty agent."* 



It is impossible that what many geologists consider as Glacial action can 

 account for the ancient Ice phenomena exhibited in northern regions, 

 or even in Scotland and "Wales. The land must have been ice locked 

 for ages, as ice bound as in Victoria Land now. The sea must have been 

 frozen to its very bottom in the shallower straits, the ice gradually moving 

 to the south, grinding down the sea bed into grooves, valleys, and ridges, 

 and carrying blocks of rock far from their parent bed. No amount of ice floes 

 could, I feel satisfied, effect the work we have to account for. Every 

 geologist knows that great changes of the level of land and sea have 

 occurred within the period of existing marine shells ; but it was not until 

 I engaged in investigating the history of the travelled boulders of this 

 part of England and of Wales, that I realized the great physical alterations 

 which have taken place in these districts since the commencement of the 

 Glacial period. It is impossible to enter into particulars in a brief paper 

 of this kind, but I may state that I am convinced that the greater part of 

 this part of England and of South "Wales was Tinderneath the sea during 

 some portion of the Glacial epoch. 



Rock Drift. I have seen numberless instances of what I would 

 denominate Rock Drift, consisting of great boulder stones carried from 

 a distance, on hiUs now elevated several himdreds of feet above the level 

 of the sea. 



The perched blocks of quartzite upon the chalk marl ridges above 

 Swindon, and the celebrated stones of Stonehenge, are, I believe, 

 blocks that belonged to a formation newer than the chalk, which 

 have been perched in their present situation by ice floes of the Glacial 

 period. The Druids may have arranged Stonehenge, but assuredly ice was 

 the power that transported the rocks. Along the flanks of the hills of 

 Dean Forest, and on those of the South "Wales coal field, I have seen 

 numerous transported blocks resting upon formations to which they do not 

 belong. Bradnor hiU, above Kington, consists of ITpper SUurian deposits 



* Ice and Water. Edinburgh Papers, by E. Chambers. 



