140 PROFESSOR EDWARD HULL, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., ON 



attributed the formation of the numerous rock basins now 

 existing as inland lakes, and the deepening of the beds ot 

 the fjords in their central portions below the level at which 

 they must have reached when they were simply river-valleys 

 continuously descending from their sources to their outfall 

 in the sea or the ocean. To this agency also are referred 

 the existence of the range of low islands and the intervening 

 channels which lie off the western coast of Norway, and 

 which bear the evidence of glacial erosion over their surfaces 

 in a marked degree. Wherever we turn in Norway we are 

 confronted with the evidence of the effects of ice movement 

 at a former period Avhich may be paralleled, but not sur- 

 passed, in any other country in Europe. 



6. Marine ter^^aces or raised beaches of Scotland. 



The next point of comparison between the physical 

 features of Norway and Scotland referred to above, is 

 the occurrence of marine terraces, or raised beaches in both 

 countries, indicating post-glacial submergence below the 

 present levels. 



All round the coast of Scotland, with occasional intervals 

 along precipitous and exposed parts of the coast, there run 

 one or more well-defined terraces, reaching to a height of 

 290 and even 350 feet near St. Andrews, and consisting of 

 sandy, gravelly, or clayey material, sometimes containing 

 shells, and sometimes bounded by cliffs perforated by caves 

 now high and dry, while isolated sea-stacks rise above the 

 surface of the terrace. Along the west coast of Argyllshire 

 especially of Cantyre, two terraces are often to be observed, 

 the higher about 40 feet, the lower about 25 feet above the 

 high water line.* The higlier terrace, which would be the 

 older, is considered by Sir A. Geikie to date from the later 

 part of the glacial period ; the lower, or more recent, which 

 is the most marked of all the terraces, may have been 

 elevated since man became an inhabitant of the island, as it 

 has yielded in several places works of human fabrication.f 



Sweden westward over the Dovrefjeld towards the North Atlantic. 

 Sur les Pheaomenes d'erosion en iS^orvjege, p. 40. 



* Originally described by Maclaren in his Geology of Fife, and by 

 Smith of Jordanhill. 



t Scenery and Geology of Scotland, ])age 320. No fewer than eighteen 

 canoes have at difi'ei'ent times been dug out of this terrace, some of them 

 amongst streets and houses. Ibid., jj. 324. 



