82 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



the highest point where there is an out-crop of this 

 rock. 



The Scotch ice-sheet flowed outwards on all sides, but 

 on the east it was met by the southward extension of the 

 great Scandinavian ice-sheet. On the extreme north the 

 meeting of these two ice-sheets resulted in a flow to the 

 north-west which glaciated the Orkney Islands, while the 

 Shetlands, much farther north, received the full impact of 

 the Scandinavian ice alone, and are therefore glaciated 

 from the north-east. The dividing-line of the Scotch and 

 Scandinavian ice-sheets was in the North Sea, not far 

 from the east coast of Scotland ; but farther south, at 

 Flamborough Head and Holderness, the latter impinged 

 on our coast, bringing with it enormous quantities of 

 Scandinavian rocks. 



Many years ago Professor Sedgwick described the cliffs 

 of boulder-clay at Holderness as containing " an incredible 

 number of smooth round blocks of granite, gneiss, green- 

 stone, mica slate, &c., &c., resembling none of the rocks of 

 England, but resembling specimens derived from various 

 parts of the great Scandinavian chain." These are mixed, 

 however, with a number of British rocks from the north 

 and west, indicating the meeting ground of the two con- 

 verging ice-sheets. Similar blocks occur all along the coast 

 as far as the cliffs of Cromer in Norfolk. Across the 

 peninsula of Flamborough about two miles west of the 

 lighthouse there is a moraine ridge containing a few 

 Scandinavian boulders, but mainly composed of British 

 rocks. These latter consist of numerous carboniferous 

 rocks from the north and north-west, together with many 

 of Shap granite — a peculiar rock found only on Shap 

 Fell in the eastern side of the Lake District, together 

 with a few of Galloway granite. These facts, it will 

 be seen, add further confirmation to the theory of 

 great confluent ice-sheets indicated by the ice-mark- 

 ings upon the various groups of mountains, while it is 

 hopelessly impossible to explain them on any theory of 

 local glaciers, even with the aid of submergence and of 

 floating ice. 



