304 



ON BRITISH DRIFTS AND THE INTERGLACIAL 

 PROBLEM. 



(Extracts from the Addki-:ss to the Geological Section, 

 British Association, York.) 



g. w. lamplugh, f.r.s., 



President of the Section. 



If a personal reminiscence be pardonable, let me first recall 

 that twenty-five years ag-o, at a meeting- of this Section in this 

 same room, I ventured, while still a youth, to contribute my 

 mite towards the riijht vmderstanding- of the Yorkshire drifts. 

 The occasion will always remain memorable to me, for it was 

 my first introduction to a scientific audience, and the encourag-ing^ 

 words spoken by Ramsay from this chair impressed themselves 

 upon me and gave me confidence to persevere in the path of 

 investig^ation. 



Finding- myself agfain in these surrounding's, it seems fitting- 

 that with fuller experience and less diffidence I should resume 

 the subject by bringing- before you some further results of my 

 study of the drifts. But it is with just a sigh that I recollect 

 how on the former occasion I was able to reacli a definite 

 conclusion on a simple problem from direct observation, and 

 had confidence that all problems mig-ht be solved by the same 

 method ; whereas now I find confronting- me an intractable 

 mass of facts and opinions, of my own and other people, terribly 

 entangled, out of which it seems to g^row ever more difficult 

 to extract the true interpretation. 



That the glacial deposits possess some quality peculiarly 

 stimulating- to the imagination will, I am sure, be recog-nised 

 by everyone who has acquaintance with glacialists or with 

 glacial literature. The diversity and strongly localised characters 

 of these deposits, together with their aspect of superficial 

 simplicity, offer boundless opportunit}- to the ingenious inter- 

 preter ; and therefore it is not surprising that along with the 

 rapid accumulation of facts relating to byg-one glaciation there 

 should have arisen much divergent opinion on questions of 

 interpretation. Nor need we regret this result, since these 

 difTerences of opinion have again and again afforded the stiniulus 

 for research that would not otherwise have been undertaken. 



The Inter(.la( ial Problem. 

 One of the most important points on which llu-re has been, 

 and still is, wide difference of opinion among glacial geologists, 



Naturalist, 



