514 . Professor T. G. Bonney— Presidential Address— 
only 7°, that allowance seems much too large, while without it 
Scandinavia would correspond in temperature with some part of that 
country from south of Upernivik to north of Frederikshaab. But if 
Christiania were not colder than Jakobshavn is now, or Britain than 
Spitzbergen, we are precluded from comparisons with the coasts of 
Baffin Bay or Victoria Land. 
Thus the ice-sheet from Scandinavia would probably be much 
greater than those generated in Britain. It would, however, find an 
obstacle to progress westwards, which cannot be ignored. If the bed 
of the North Sea became dry land, owing to a general rise of 600 feet, 
that would still be separated from Norway by a deep channel, 
extending from the Christiania Fjord round the coast northward. 
Even then this would be everywhere more than another 600 feet deep, 
and almost as wide as the Strait of Dover. The ice must cross this 
and afterwards be forced for more than 300 miles up a slope which, 
though gentle, would be in vertical height at least 600 feet. The 
task, if accomplished by thrust from behind, would be a heavy one, 
and, so far as | know, without a parallel at the present day; if the 
viscosity of the ice enabled it to flow, as has lately been urged,* we 
must be cautious in appealing to the great Antarctic barrier, because 
we now learn that more than half of it is only consolidated snow.’ 
Moreover, if the ice floated across that channel, the thickness of the 
boulder-bearing layers would be diminished by melting (as in Ross’s 
Barrier), and the more viscous the material the greater the tendency 
for these to be left behind by the overflow of the cleaner upper layers. 
If, however, the whole region became dry land, the Scandinavian 
glaciers would descend into a broad valley, considerably more than 
1200 feet deep, which would afford them an easy path to the Arctic 
Ocean, so that only a lateral overflow, inconsiderable in volume, could 
spread itself over the western plateau. An attempt to escape this 
difficulty has been made by assuming the existence of an independent 
centre of distribution for ice and boulders near the middle of the 
North Sea bed‘ (which would demand rather exceptional conditions 
of temperature and precipitation); but in such case either the 
Scandinavian ice would be fended off from England, or the boulders, 
prior to its advance, must have been dropped by floating ice on the 
neighbouring sea-floor. 
Tf, then, our own country were but little better than Spitzbergen 
as a producer of ice, and Scandinavia only surpassed Southern Green- 
land in having a rather heavier snowfall, what interpretation may we 
give to the glacial phenomena of Britain? Three have been proposed. 
One asserts that throughout the Glacial Epoch the British Isles 
generally stood at a higher level, so that the ice which almost buried 
1 R. M. Deeley, Grou. Mac., 1909, p. 239. 
2 BH. Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic, ii, 277. 
3 Tt has indeed been affirmed (Brogger, Om de sengiaciale og postglaciale nivaforand- 
ringer i Kristianiafelted, p. 682) that at the time of the great ice-sheet of Europe 
the sea-bottom must have been uplifted at least 8500 feet higher than at present. — 
This may be a ready explanation of the occurrence of certain dead shells in deep 
water, but, unless extremely local, it would revolutionize the drainage system of 
Central Europe. 
Grou. Mac., 1901, pp. 142, 187, 284, 332. 
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