REVIEWS 281 
accumulation of the so-called palagonite formation. Even if we discard the 
evidence furnished by the lowest breccias (in which, it will be remembered, 
that notwithstanding their morainic aspect, no striated stones occurred), we 
have still the overwhelming evidence of glaciation supplied by the higher 
morainic breccias. But whether these indurated ground moraines represent 
three, four, or more glaciations, one or other of them must represent the 
epoch of maximum glaciation in Europe. The glaciation which left the older 
system of markings on the dolerite of Stangasfjall is, of course, of later date 
and may possibly represent the Mecklenburgian stage (Geikie) of northern 
Europe, and the first postglacial stage of glaciation of the Alps (Penck). It 
seems more than probable that a change of. climate, corresponding to that 
which in the Alps depressed the snow line about 3000 feet, would bring 
about the total glaciation of Iceland. Indeed, a much less important change 
in the climatic conditions would suffice to do this. It is therefore quite 
possible that the younger system of striae marking the surfaces of the doler- 
ites may be contemporaneous with that readvance of cold conditions which 
produced the local glaciers of the “Lower Turbarian stage”’ of Scotland, , 
and those of the “Second postglacial stage” in the Alps. 
[The second striated horizon in the moraine of Sudurnes (if it be not a 
striated pavement) may possibly indicate a third “post-doleritic”’ glaciation, 
but until additional evidence be forthcoming, this isolated observation must 
be left out of consideration. ] 
So far as I know, all that has been written on the glacial period in Ice- 
land refers to the minor glaciations which supervened after the ejection of 
the doleritic streams of lava. I say minor glaciations, even although the 
country appears during those stages to have been totally ice-covered. But 
the mass of the “ palagonite-moraines”’ is so very much greater than that of 
the loose accumulations of the later glaciations, that we may reasonably infer 
that the former are products of much greater ice-sheets. Moreover, the con- 
ditions of erosion and accumulation during successive glaciations seem to 
have differed at the same localities. Further, when we remember that the 
whole region throughout which the palagonite-formation occurs, has been 
extensively fractured and consequently has experienced many subsidences — 
and when we reflect that all these important deformations of the land surface 
took place subsequent to the accumulation of the uppermost morainic brec- 
cias, we are led to suspect that the area over which the older glaciations pre- 
vailed may have considerably exceeded that which now exists. Probably 
conclusive evidence on this point may be obtained by studying the directions 
of the oldest glacial striae all over the country, and more especially in the 
north. 
It would probably also be of great interest to determine the relations of 
the Pliocene shell-beds near Husavik, North Iceland, to the “‘ tuff- and brec- 
cia-formation.”” As I have obtained a grant from the Carlsberg Fund, 
