66 THE WALLS OF FJORDS. 



resistance. Mr. Tayler asks triumphantly, Why does not the great 

 glacier referred to cut its way through the sand and debris which lie 

 at its base? I answer, Give it time, and most assuredly it will do 

 so. That is, however, not a question at all connected with the 

 abrading power of the glacier. It is simply connected with the 

 question of what mechanical force the glacier exerts in pushing 

 forward. When the average rate of the downward and outward 

 progress of a Greenland glacier is only about Jive inches per diem, we 

 must not be in a great hurry to see the solution of the question 

 Mr. Tayler has proposed. But, just as truly as a glacier moves, 

 will this rubbish be shot into deeper water, and the end of the 

 glacier, buoyed off by the deeper water, break off in the form of an 

 iceberg. 



4. The Walls of Fjords. — I am asked, Why were not the soft sand- 

 stone, coal, " black-lead," &c, of which the sides of many fjords 

 are composed, ground away ? Eeally, it is unnecessary to give 

 an answer. It answers itself. Some glaciers are rather broad, 

 but still they have a limit, and so had these ancient glaciers, whose 

 bed these fjords were ; and 1 suppose that though the " soft sand- 

 stone, coal, black-lead," &c, which lay in the way, was worn away 

 and floated seaward by the sub-glacial stream ; still, when the glacier 

 reached its limits, what did not come within the area of the action of 

 ice would remain. I believe this does not require a very great ten- 

 sion of the scientific imagination to conceive, and that even my 

 opponent will acknowledge. Mr. Tayler in his, on the whole, short 

 but admirably conscientious description of the Greenland fjords, 

 mentions a fact in support of my theory, viz., that on the 

 rocks on either side of these fjords are ice-markings. I would 

 like him to explain these. It ought, however, to be mentioned 

 that, except where the walls of the fjord are composed of trap, 

 gneiss, or some other hard rock, we must not expect to see 

 many marks of the grooving of the ice which formerly rubbed 

 against them. For the action of the weather, disintegrating 

 the surface of the rocks, or tumbling down huge masses into 

 the sea, frost riving the rocks asunder, as well as the masses 

 which in former times must have fallen on the side of the glacier 

 in the form of lateral moraine, must have all helped greatly 

 to efface any ice-markings which might have been formed. Both, 

 however, Mr. Tavler here, and Dr. Kae in some remarks he made 

 at the meeting in support of my views, mention seeing these 

 markings, as I have seen them, both on the sides of these Greenland 

 and Arctic fjords, and in other parts of the world. Mr. Tayler 

 has presented a geological puzzle for my consideration in the form 



