president's address. 21 



even as far north as Aberdeen, while they have been traced from the 

 East Anglian coast to near Ware, Hitchin, and Bedford. 1 It may be 

 important to notice that these Scandinavian erratics are often waterworn, 

 like those dispersed over Denmark and parts of Northern Germany. 



On the western side of England the course of erratics is not less 

 remarkable. Boulders from South-Western Scotland, especially from the 

 Kirkcudbright district, both waterworn and angular, are scattered over 

 the lowlands as far south as Wolverhampton, Bridgnorth, and Church 

 Stretton. They may be traced along the border of North Wales, 

 occurring, as has been said, though generally small, up to about 1,300 

 feet on Moel Tryfaen, 1,100 feet at Gloppa, and more than that height 

 on the hills east of Macclesfield. Boulders from the Lake District are 

 scattered over much the same area and attain the same elevation, but 

 extend, as might be expected, rather further to the east in Lancashire. 

 They also have been found on the eastern side of the Pennine watershed, 

 perhaps the most remarkable instances being in the dales of the Derby- 

 shire Derwent and on the adjacent hills as much as 1,400 feet above 

 the sea-level. 2 A third remarkable stream of erratics from the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Arenig mountains extends from near the estuary of 

 the Dee right across the paths of the two streams from the north, its 

 eastern border passing near Kugeley, Birmingham, and Bromsgrove. 

 They also range high, occurring almost 900 feet above sea-level on 

 llomsley Hill, north of the Clents, and being common at Gloppa. 

 Boulders also from the basalt mass of Eowley Regis have travelled in 

 some cases between four and five miles, and in directions ranging from 

 rather west of south to north-east ; and, though that mass hardly rises 

 above the 700-feet contour line, one lies with an Arenig boulder on 

 Romsley Hill. From Charnwood Forest, the crags of which range up 

 to about 850 feet above sea-level, boulders have started which have been 

 traced over an area to the south and west to a distance of more than 

 twenty miles. 



Such, then, are the facts, which call for an interpretation. More 

 than one have been proposed ; but it will be well, before discussing them, 

 to arrive at some idea of the climate of these islands during the colder 

 part of the Glacial Epoch. Unless that were associated with very great 

 changes in the distribution of sea and land in Northern and North- 

 western Europe, we may assume that neither the relative position of 

 the isotherms nor the distribution of precipitation would be very 

 materially altered. A general fall of temperature in the northern 

 hemisphere might so weaken the warmer ocean current from the south- 

 west that our coasts might be approached by a cold one from the 



1 R. H. Rastall and J. Romanes, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, lxv. (1909), p. 246. 

 a Communication from Br. H. Arnold-Bemrose. 



