137 
THE DRIFTLESS AREA OF NORTH-EAST YORKSHIRE 
AND ITS RELATION T0) THE GEOGRAPHICAL 
DISTRIBUTION OF CERTAIN PLANTS AND 
INSECTS. 
FRANK ELGEE, 
Middlesbrough. 
One of the most remarkable features of the glacial geology of 
Yorkshire is the driftless area occupied by the moorlands of 
Cleveland, which also form one of the great botanical aspects 
of the county. In the words of Sir Archibald Geikie, ‘these 
uplands appear to have formed an insular space round which 
the ice sheets swept, but which remained unsubmerged.’ There 
is no question of any marine submergence whatever in this area, 
for Professor Kendall has conclusively proved to all who have 
examined the evidence fairly that a complicated system of extra- 
morainic lakes was held up in the valleys open to the ice sheets.* 
But the region occupied either by the ice or the lakes does not 
seem to have received the attention, from a natural history point 
of view, which it ought to have had. It has frequently been 
supposed that the driftless region was a barren desert, and only 
supporting a few Arctic plants, during the Ice Age, but no 
evidence can be adduced to substantiate this opinion. I hope 
to show that far from such being the case, the area in question 
probably maintained a fairly numerous fauna and flora during 
the Glacial Period. The object of this paper is, therefore, to 
briefly indicate what, in my opinion, was the botanical and 
zoological condition of the area at the climax of that period. 
The driftless region measures, roughly, about thirty by 
eighteen miles, and embraces nearly the whole of the moorlands 
of north east Yorkshire. The dales on the north side of the 
watershed were, during the maximum extension of the ice, 
occupied by extra-morainic lakes, but the great valleys of Bils- 
dale, Bransdale, Farndale, and Rosedale were free of either 
ice or water. To the south the area was bounded by Lake 
Pickering. 
With the oncoming of the glaciers, the animals and plants 
inhabiting the lowlands of England would either be driven 
southwards or exterminated. The views of Dr. Scharff and 
others are that parts of the British fauna and flora survived 
* See ‘ Naturalist,’ 1903, pp. 14-15. 
1907 April 1. 
