TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 647 



of hundreds of thousands of years. There is no means, so far as I at present 

 know, of indicating the law of recurrence of ice ages with any further accuracy of 

 detail. 



I wou'd also like to say that while I have here striven to enunciate with 

 precision the astronomical aspect of the prohlem, I am profoundly conscious of 

 the many geological agents which may contribute to modify the eU'ects of which 

 I am treating. 



2. Report of the Committee on Erratic Blocks. — See Reports, p. 276. 



3. Notes on the Glacial Gcologij of Norway. B>/ H. W. Crossket, LL.D.^ 



F.O.S. 



Attention was called to a passage in the standard work on ' Norway and its 

 Glaciers ' by Forbes, p. 24, in which it is stated that they are questionable traces of 

 glaciers on the Dovre-fjeld, and that nothing decisive of their action, either by 

 wearing and polishing the rocks where they come into view or in the deposition 

 of glaciers, could be seen. 'Nor are the mounds of stone (it is added), which are 

 abundant enough, sufficiently characteristic to deserve the appellation of moraines. 

 They are indeed sometimes disposed in flat-topped ridges ; but this is due, if I 

 mistake not, to the eroding action of torrents, which have gradually undermined 

 them, leaving abrupt talus, which at first resemble moraines, but in their present 

 form it is diificult or impossible to identify them.' 



Since the time of Forbes the deposits of the Glacial epoch have been studied in 

 greater detail, and it is now possible to assign to their proper places and causes 

 many deposits which it has previously been regarded as impossible to identify. 

 The description given of the Dovre-fjeld needs many corrections and additions. 

 The plateau is hidden to a considerable extent by a rough layer of stony material, 

 but wherever the basement rock is exposed glaciation may be found. The mounds 

 that are alluded to by Forbes are related to the action of ice among the mountains 

 which bound the Dovre-fjeld. The glaciers in the valleys of those mountains 

 •descended over the Dovre-fjeld, and accumulated their moraines upon it, and 

 the mounds are the relics of lateral glaciers. As the snows melted, torrents 

 of water were poured down from the surrounding mountains over the Dovre- 

 fjeld, larger lakes than those now existing were formed within any hollows and 

 within the boundaries of morainic dams. 



As the climate ameliorated the snows lessened, and the torrents of water were 

 less excessive ; but streams and rivers abounded, connecting the diminished lakes. 

 Owing to these processes, the moraines were swept away to a large extent, only 

 small mounds being left, and their material was distributed over the surface of 

 the plateau. Angular blocks were roimded, and glaciated surfaces buried beneath 

 the debris. 



In the deposits of the Dovre-fjeld there is thus every proof — (1) of a period of 

 extreme glaciation ; (2) of the existence of glaciers descending from lateral valleys 

 in the surrounding mountains ; (3) of the gradual disappearance of these glaciers 

 and the washing of their moraines over the general surface of the f jeld. 



Not a few erratic ice-worn blocks also occur, although in many cases they 

 have been water-worn during the course of the history described. 



4. Recent Discoveries concerning the Relation of the Glacial Period in North 

 America to the Antiquity of Man. By Professor G. Fredekick 

 Weight, F.G.8A., LL.D., Oberlin, Ohio, U.S.A. 



Palaeolithic implements of the type of those found in the high-level gravel of 

 the Valley of the Somme, and of various streams of Southern England, have now 

 been found in similar gra vel deposits in no less than aoveu different places in the 

 United States — namely at Trenton, New Jersey, by Dr. C. C. Abbott ; at 



