236 PROFESSOR JAMES GE1KIE, LL.D., D.C.L., E.R.S., ETC., ON 



mile above the head of Loch Torridon.* The evidence of this 

 recrudescence of glacial conditions in postglacial times is 

 not confined to Scotland. I believe it will yet be recognised 

 in many other mountain-regions ; but already Prof. Penck has 

 detected it in the valleys of the Pyrenees.f Dr. Kerner has 

 also described similar phenomena in the valley of the Stubai 

 near Innsbruck, while Professor Bruckner has obtained like 

 evidence in the Salzach region.! 



I have elsewhere traced the history of the succeeding 

 stages of the postglacial period, and brought forward 

 evidence of similar but less strongly-marked climatic changes 

 having followed upon those just referred to, and my conclu- 

 sions, I may add, have been supported by the independent 

 researches of Professor Blytt in Norway. But these later 

 changes need not be considered here, and I shall leave them 

 out of account in the discussion that follows. It is sufficient 

 for my present purpose to confine attention to the well-proved 

 conclusion that in early postglacial times genial climatic 

 conditions obtained, and that these were followed by cold and 

 humid conditions, during the prevalence of which considerable 

 local glaciers re-appeared in certain mountain- valleys. § 



We speak of Pleistocene or glacial and of postglacial 

 periods as if the one were more or less sharply marked off 

 from the other. Of course, that is not the case, and in point 

 of fact it would be for many reasons preferable to include 

 them under some general term. Taken together they form 

 one tolerably well-defined cycle of time, characterised above 

 all by its remarkable climatic changes — by alternations of cold 

 and genial conditions, that were most strongly contrasted in 

 the earlier stages of the period. It is further worthy of note 

 that various oscillations of the sea-level appear to have taken 

 place again and again both in the earlier and later stages of 

 the cycle. 



We may now proceed to inquire whether the phenomena 



* For Scottish postglacial glaciers see J. Geikie : Scottish Naturalist, 

 Jan., 1880 ; Prehistoric Europe, pp. 386, 407 ; Penck : Deutsche geo- 

 graphische Blatter, Bd. VI, p. 323 ; Yerhandlung d. Ges. f. Erdkunde, 

 Berlin, 1884, Heft i. 



t Die Eiszeit in den Pyrenaen : Mittheil. d. Vereins f. Erdkunde, 

 Leipzig, 1883. 



\ Eiszeit-stndien in den sudostlichen Alpen : X. Jahresbericht d. geo- 

 graph. Ges. v. Bern, 1891. 



§ For a full statement of the evidence see Prehistoric Europe, Chaps. 



