388 T. F. Jamieson — the Scandinavian Glacier. 



to combat them, but I have been converted to his mode of view." 

 Charpentier, however, tells us that it was his friend Yenetz who 

 was the first to perceive (as he tersely puts it) that " tout le phe- 

 nomene du terrain erratique trouvait son explication dans I'existence 

 ancienne d'immenses glaciers." 



When the Scandinavian Glacier reached its maximum, it extended 

 over most of Northern Europe and stretched eastward beyond 

 Moscow. To the south-east it went as far as the 50th parallel of 

 lat. on the banks of the Dnieper, and from that its southern border 

 ran westward along the northern base of the Carpathian Mountains 

 and the hills of Central Germany to the mouth of the Ehine. If 

 the starting-point lay in the mountain-chain of Scandinavia, the ice 

 must have travelled to the south-east, a distance of fully 1000 miles. 

 Nitikin ^ tells us that the northern erratics extend over the whole 

 Government of Tschernigow and the east part of that of Kiew, but 

 the unstratified brown Boulder-clay which accompanies them does 

 not go beyond the eastern border of the Tschernigow Government. 



General Helmersen^ says that heaps of northern boulders, generally 

 of small size, but some of them four feet in length, occur as far as 

 Moscow, while further south they rapidly diminish in size to mere 

 pebbles. The large angular blocks mentioned as occurring in the 

 Governments of Kursk and Woronesh are not erratics, but consist of 

 sandstone the same as that of the district in which they are found. 

 The size of the erratics diminishes gradually with the distance from 

 their source. In Finland they are often as big as cottages, and in 

 the GoA'-ernment of St. Petersburg blocks of large dimensions may 

 also be seen. Most of them are of granite and gneiss, such as occur 

 in Finland and Northern Norway. 



Judging from the accounts of Torell, De Geer, and other Swedish 

 geologists, the stream of ice that came down the Baltic must have had 

 a length equal to fifteen degrees of latitude, or more, and the whole 

 tenor of the evidence leads me to think that I am not overstating, 

 when I say that the Scandinavian glacier travelled in some directions 

 at least 1000 miles. The reason why it went so far to the south-east 

 no doubt was because there were neither hills nor opposing glaciers 

 to obstruct its march, and the plains of Kussia gave ample room 

 for it to spread freely onwards. The Canadian ice seems to have 

 travelled nearly as far in a south-westerly direction, and for similar 

 reasons. 



Now what would be the inclination or slope of the surface in a 

 glacier of such dimensions ? The nearest thing of the kind that we 

 have any knowledge about is the ice-sheet of Greenland. What the 

 average slope of its surface amounts to has not yet been properly 

 determined, but from all we have hitherto learned it does not seem 

 to be less than half a degree, or 46 feet per mile. In the glaciers of 



^ S. Nitikin, Die grenze der Gletscher spuren in Russland und dem Ural Gebirge, 

 Peterm. Geog. Mit. 1886 ; also Geol. Ban der Eisenbahn linie, Gomel Briansk, 

 Russia, 1887. 



^ G. V. Helmersen, Studien iiber die Wanderblocke und die Diluvial Gebilde 

 Eusslands, Mem. de I'Acad. Imp. des Sci. St. Petersburg, 1869. 



