Glaciers in Scotland and England^ Part II. 587 



motion of the ice would be very small, there would be, Mr. Lyell 

 states, vast accumulations of snow filling the plains and valleys to a 

 great height, and leaving bare only the higher peaks and precipices 

 of the mountains. From these points, he conceives the erratic 

 blocks were detached and conveyed almost imperceptibly along the 

 surface of the frozen snow to great distances. Lastly, at the break- 

 ing up and gradual retreat of the glaciers during the third period, he 

 is of opinion, the boulders were deposited in the various situations 

 in which they are now found, and that moraines, or lateral and trans- 

 verse mounds, were successively deposited, and lakes formed, by which 

 stratified materials were accumulated in certain positions. 



The second part of Dr. Buckland's Memoir on the Evidence of 

 Glaciers in Scotland and the North of England, was then read. 



ITie first part of the Memoir concluded with an account of glacial 

 phaenomena in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh (see ante, p. 569) ; 

 and the line of country more particularly described in this portion 

 extends southward from Edinburgh by Berwick, Newcastle, the Che- 

 viots, the lake districts of Cumberland and Westmoreland, Kendal 

 and Lancaster, to Shap Fell. A large portion of the low lands be- 

 tween Edinburgh and Haddington is composed of till or unstratified 

 glacier-mud containing pebbles. In the valley of the North Tyne, 

 about one mile east of Haddington, is a longitudinal moraine mid- 

 way between, and parallel to, the river and the high road ; and 

 Dr. Buckland directs attention to the trap-rocks which commence a 

 little further eastward, and are intersected by the Tyne for four or 

 five miles above Linton, as likely to present scored and striated sur- 

 faces, where the valley is most contracted. Four miles west of 

 Dunbar another long and lofty ridge of gravel stretches along the 

 right bank of the river ; and for three miles to the south-east of Dun- 

 bar extends a series of terraces or modified lateral moraines. In the 

 high valleys at the east extremity of the Lammermuir hills, between 

 Cockburn's Path and Ayton, moraines dispersed in terraces are also 

 visible at various heights on both sides of the river ; and on the left 

 margin of the estuarj-- of the Tweed, three miles north of Berwick, 

 round tumuli and oblong mounds of gravel are lodged on the slope 

 of a hill 300 or 400 feet above the level of the sea. 



Moraines in Northumberland. — On many parts of the coast of 

 Northumberland, especially near Newcastle, deposits of till rest 

 upon the carboniferous rocks. At the village of North Charlton, 

 between Belford and Alnwick, Mr. C. Trevelyan pointed out to 

 Dr. Buckland in 1821, a tortuous ridge of gravel which was sup- 

 posed to be an inexplicable work of art ; but which he became con- 

 vinced, after an examination in 1838 of the upper glacier of Grin- 

 delwald and that of llosenlaui, is a lateral moraine. Dr. Buckland 

 was prevented from examining the gorges through which the Burns 

 descend from the eastern extremity of the Cheviots, but he directs 

 attention to them as points where striae and other proofs of glacial 

 action may be found. Immediately below the vomitories of the 

 eastern valleys of the CJieviots, enormous moraines are stated to 

 cover a tract four miles from uorth to south, and two from west to 



