Dr. Nils Olof Hoist — The Ice Age in England. 511 



Some important questions in this connexion are those relating to 

 contemporary conditions in the North Sea. ~When did the Scandinavian 

 inland ice disappear from England ? Or, in other words, when did 

 the ice cease to block the North Sea ? How rapid was the elevation 

 that began in Mousterian time, and when did there succeed the last 

 change of level, the depression of " the submerged forests" ? 



During the maximum of glaciation the Scandinavian inland ice 

 came to England in great force, and has left its traces right down 

 the Thames Valley in the south and up to Hartlepool and Durham in 

 the north. The inland ice, however, took a curve to the north in the 

 neighbourhood of the North Sea, and probably also in the Sea itself. 

 Both on the English and Dutch sides proofs of this may be seen. 

 While in the neighbourhood of London the ice comes quite close to 

 the Thames Valley ; on the coast of the North Sea it does not come 

 further than to the district between Suffolk and Essex ; and while 

 in Holland it comes near the Rhine, where this river runs into the 

 Dutch district, on the coast it reaches only down to the southern 

 end of the Zuyder Zee. The same conditions obtained at the beginning 

 of the post-glacial time, when the southern limit of the inland ice 

 is precisely indicated by the large terminal moraine. From York, 

 in latitude 52° 52 '-53', the terminal moraine passes to the north-east, 

 and on the continental side the greater melting in the neighbourhood 

 of the North Sea is still more clearly accentuated. The circum- 

 baltic terminal moraine, coming from the east, has a direction east 

 and west, but takes a sharp turn northward as it passes from 

 Mecklenburg into Holstein, and here, as well as in Schleswig, comes 

 much closer to the east than to the west coast, after which, in 

 Jutland, it takes a new western curve down to the coast of the 

 North Sea, which it first meets in latitude 56° 30'. 



Here the important fact must be recalled that on the continental 

 side within the Intermediate zone there have been found marine 

 deposits, "Arctic clay covered by boreal sand," along the east coast 

 of the North Sea, from Lamstedt and Basbeck south of the Elbe in 

 the south up to the Jutland locality, Hostrup, in the north. 

 Intermediate localities are Burg and Esbjerg. The most southerly 

 occurrences lie at a height of 5 to 7 metres above sea-level, the most 

 northerly at a height of 27 metres, 1 from which follows the conclusion 

 that at the time of their deposition the land was more depressed 

 in the north than in the south. Further, since these beds, deposited 

 in an open North Sea, show by their Arctic character and in other 

 ways that they belong to the earliest portion of the Intermediate 

 stage, the conclusion follows that the blocking of the North Sea 

 by the Scandinavian inland ice ceased quite early, probably shortly 

 after the disappearance of the Hesbayan lake, or, in other words, 

 just at the beginning of the Intermediate time. 



The elevation of the land at that time is, naturally, not easy to 

 prove, since that part of the sea-floor which then lay above the 

 surface of the water now lies sunk beneath it. The post-glacial 

 changes of level on the other hand appear simpler, and if, as is 



1 Hoist, 1904. Kvartarstudier, etc., pp. 433-9. 



