382 Notes and Comments. 
THE SCANDINAVIAN GLACIER. 
In the discussion which followed, Mr. F. W. Harmer said 
that the question of the origin of the valley-system of East 
Anglia should be studied as a whole, and over as wide an area as 
possible. If it were possible to ascertain the conditions ob- 
taining in one part of the region, it would not be unreasonable to 
draw conclusions as to what was going on at the same time in 
another. The facts to be observed in Norfolk, where the evi- 
dence was clearer, might therefore throw light on those ad- 
duced by the Author from the sister country. In the speaker’s 
opinion, East Anglia was invaded by ice; and first from the 
north, by the Great Scandinavian glacier. To this invasion was 
due, not only the Contorted Drift of the remarkable and abrupt 
ridge which crosses the north-eastern portion of Norfolk from 
west-south-west to east-north-east, attaining a maximum 
thickness of 300 feet, but also the uncontorted beds of brick- 
earth equivalent to it which occur over the lower and flattened 
region towards Norwich. The latter the speaker considered 
represented the moraine profonde of the North Sea ice during 
its maximum extension; the former, the contorted part, a 
terminal moraine at some stage of its retreat. 
DATE OF THE VALLEY SYSTEM. 
Now, it seems clear that when the North Sea ice crept over 
the country from the Cromer coast to the latitude of the 
Waveney valley and beyond, the present valley system of East 
Norfolk could hardly have been in existence: any pre-Glacial 
elevations then existing would have been levelled down by the 
ice, and any pre-Glacial depressions levelled up, or filled in by 
the morainic detritus brought by it. Moreover, the North Sea 
Boulder-clay never occurs in this region as a valley deposit ; 
on the contrary, the valleys, as, for example, those of the 
Yare and Wensum at Norwich, and of the Waveney at Beccles, 
are distinctly shown to have been cut out of it. The excava- 
tion of the Norfolk valleys took place after or during the 
retreat of the North Sea ice-sheet, but before the deposition 
of a part at least of the Chalky Boulder Clay. It may have 
been due, not improbably, to the action of torrential water 
during the retreat and melting of the ice of the first glaciation. 
PRESIDENCY : YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ UNION. 
At an unusually well-attended meeting of the Executive 
Committee of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, recently held, 
it was unanimously agreed to offer the Presidency of the York- 
shire Naturalists’ Union, for 1914, to Mr. Thomas Sheppard, 
F.G.S., who for many years was the Hon. Secretary of the 
Union and did so much with regard to completing and publish- 
ing the Union’s various monographs. We understand the 
invitation has been accepted. 
Naturalist, 
