240 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE- 



Spean, the waters would flow down their respective val- 

 leys as they do to-day. 



Reviewing our work, we find three considerable steps 

 to have marked the solution of the problem of the Par- 

 allel Roads of Glen Roy. The first of these was taken 

 by Sir Thomas Dick-Lauder, the second was the pregnant 

 conception of Agassiz regarding glacier action, and the 

 third was the testing and verification of this conception 

 by the very thorough researches of Mr. Jamieson. No 

 circumstance or incident connected with this discourse 

 gives me greater pleasure than the recognition of the 

 value of these researches. They are marked throughout 

 by unflagging industry, by novelty and acuteness of ob- 

 servation, and by reasoning power of a high and varied 

 kind. These pages had been returned "for press" when 

 I learned that the relation of Ben Nevis and his colleagues 

 to the vapor-laden winds of the Atlantic had not escaped 

 Mr. Jamieson. To him obviously the exploration of Loch- 

 aber, and the development of the theory of the Parallel 

 Roads, has been a labor of love. 



Thus ends our rapid survey of this brief episode in the 

 physical history of the Scottish hills brief, that is to say, 

 in comparison with the immeasurable lapses of time through 

 which, to produce its varied structure and appearances, our 

 planet must have passed. In the survey of such a field 

 two things are specially worthy to be taken into account 

 the widening of the intellectual horizon and the reaction 

 of expanding knowledge upon the intellectual organ itself. 

 At first, as in the case of ancient glaciers, through sheer 

 want of capacity, the mind refuses to take in revealed 

 facts. But by degrees the steady contemplation of these 

 facts so strengthens and expands the intellectual powers 



