1020 REPORT—1885. 
at issue is of importance, especially in outlying islands and elsewhere, where other 
indications of the direction of glaciation fail. 
In Pennsylvania, which is crossed from east to west by the terminal moraine of 
the great ice-sheet, and where the glaciation is uniformly in a southward direction, 
the author had observed that the blunt ends of the strize, where flat surfaces were 
studied, were always to the south.! In certain instances the mode of formation of 
the strie was also indicated by their shapes, which showed that a stone pushed 
along under the glacier had ground in deeper and deeper until, in some cases, it 
stopped or hopped out, in other cases was ground down to another cutting edge, 
and in others turned over and began its work of engraving by a fresh and sharp 
corner. The peculiar gouges at the farther end of certain strize showed a sort of 
slow rocking motion in some stones before they finally turned over. 
The author's observations in Ireland, both at localities where there could be no 
doubt as to the direction of glacial movement, and at localities where such direction 
was not previously known, led to conclusions entirely in harmony with those 
already reached in Pennsylvania and with those held by the Irish geologists, 
One of the best examples falling under the former category was among the local 
glaciers in the mountains of the Dingle promontory, a region not invaded by the 
great confluent ice-sheet of Central Ireland. The striated beds of these small 
glaciers, beginning in a ‘corry’ and bounded below by a semicircular terminal 
moraine, are beautifully defined and afford good opportunities for striae study. It 
was found that the wedge-shaped strie are blunt at the advancing end except on 
convex downward surfaces, where the reverse is the case. While this rule does not 
hold good for every individual scratch at a given locality, it has been found most 
useful when applied to striated surfaces in general. 
At Glengariff, where some finely striated surfaces occvr, a rumber of tracings 
were taken directly from the rock, which clearly show the broader ends of most of 
the striz to be to the south, the direction toward which the glacial stream ad- 
vanced, Similar observations were made at several localities south of the 
Shannon. 
Tinally, as an instance where the direction of glaciation was previously un- 
known, certain strize were described which the author had observed on the top of 
the cliffs facing the Atlantic at Kilkee. These point N. 58° W.and S. 58° E., and 
the question to be determined was whether the glaciation proceeded from the 
Atlantic towards the land, or whether it went north-westward and out tosea. The 
form of the strive alone decided it. Their broad biunt ends were, asa rule, toward 
the N.W.—the surface being horizontal—a fact which, taken in connection with 
other observations made about the mouth of the Shannon, showed that a great ice 
stream had flowed westward ulong the valley of the Shannon, and had opened out 
fan-shaped as it plunged into the sea. 
8. Proposed Conditions to account for a former Glacial Period in Great 
Britain, existing under similar meteorological conditions to those that 
rule at the present time. By W. ¥F.Svranuuy, I.G.S., FR.ALS. 
This paper may be considered as a continuation of a paper read by the author 
last year, in which it was argued that climates did not appear to be greatly 
influenced by excentricity of the earth’s orbit or the position of winter perihelion, 
as assumed by Dr. Croll and other physicists of the present time. The southern 
hemisphere, assumed to be the colder, was shown by observation to be the warmer. 
‘Therefore, looking to other causes for former glaciation, the author suggested that 
these were possibly local phenomena which were dependent upon geographical con- 
ditions, The former glaciationin Great Britain and Western Europe was supposed 
by the author to be due to the following conditions :— 
1. The non-existence of the Isthmus of Panama, by which the warm southern 
tropical current, now deflected by Cape St. Roque, in South America, into the 
* On the Terminal Moraine in Pennsylvania and Western New York. Report Z. 
Second Geolog. Survey of Penn., pp. 33, 85, 86, 107, 275. 
