188 Correspondoire — Professor T. G. Bonney. 



Alfred Harker, M.A., F.K.S. ; Eobert Stansfield Ilerries, M.A. ; Finlay Lorimer 

 Kitchin, M.A., Ph.D.; George William Lamplugh, F.E.S. ; John Edward Man-, 

 Sc.D., F.E.S. ; Horace WooilastonMonckton, Treas.L.S. ; Eichard Dixon Oldham; 

 George Thurland Prior, M.A., D.Sc. ; Professor Sidney Hugh EeTOolds, M.A. ; 

 Professor William JoliTison Sollas, LL.D., Sc.D., F.R.S. ; Aiibrev Strahan, 

 Sc.D., F.E.S. ; J. J. Harris Teall, M.A., D.Sc, F.E.S. ; Eichard Hill'Tiddeman, 

 M.A. ; Professor William Whitehead AYatts, Sc.D., M.Sc, F.E.S. ; Henry Woods, 

 M.A. ; Ai-thur Smith Woodward, LL.D., F.E.S., F.L.S. ; and George William 

 Young. 



Officers : — Freiident : Professor William Johnson Sollas, LL.D., Sc.D., F.E.S. 

 Vice- Presidents : George William Lamplugh, F.E.S. ; Horace Woollaston Monckton, 

 Treas.L.S.; J. J. Harris Teall, M.A."; D.Sc, F.E.S.; and Professor WilUam 

 AVhitehead Watts, Sc.D., M.Sc, F.E.S. Secretaries: Professor Edmund Johnston 

 Garwood, M.A., and Arthur Smith Woodward, LL.D., F.E.S. Foreign Secretary : 

 Sir Archibald GeiHe, K.C.B., D.C.L., LL.D., Sc.D., Pres.E.S. Treasurer: 

 Aubrey Strahan, Sc.D., F.E.S. 



COI^K,ES^'OTsriDE:N'OE. 



SCANDINAVIAN ICE-SHEETS AND BEITISH GLACIAL DEIFTS. 



Sir, — I am glad to see that Mr. Deeley lias applied the results of 

 Captain Scott's Antarctic expedition to the supposed extension of 

 a Scandiuavian ice-sheet to the British coasts, because it shows that 

 the advocates of this hypothesis are abandoning the policy of "letting 

 severely alone " the difficulty of the Norwegian Channel. Thus 

 I regard his letter as a real advance towards the settlement of a very 

 complex problem. But does not his idea of a floating ice bridge 

 also involve some serious difficulties? Let us assume the sea-level 

 during this part of tlie Glacial Epoch to have been the same as its 

 present one. We may take the depth of the channel round the 

 southern end of Norway to be from 1,500 to 1,800 feet (see 

 Geol. Mag., 1899, p. 282, for the variations). But the North Sea 

 is generally not more than 250 feet deep, and occasionally only 

 50 feet (id., 1901, p. 187); the breadth of the channel is about 

 30 miles, and the distance from the Naze of Norway to Cromer 

 about 400 miles. Let us suppose the top of the Scandinavian ice- 

 sheet to have been only 100 feet above sea-level at the ' bridge ' ; then, 

 according to Captain Scott's estimate, its total thickness must have 

 been at least 600 feet, or the bottom of the ice-sheet some 300 feet 

 below the margin of the North Sea plateau. Thus it must either 

 have been forced up and over an undulating floor for over 350 miles 

 before it reached the English coast, or its movement have been 

 practically restricted to the upper layers. The latter hypothesis 

 demands a greater viscosity in ice than seems probable to me, though 

 I always thought Forbes nearer than Tyndall to the truth in their 

 Avell-known controversy. The former presents several difficulties, 

 a full discussion of which Avould be impossible in the limits of 

 a letter; so I content myself with saying that we must be cautious 

 in resorting to the Antarctic or even to Greenland for a picture of 

 Scandinavia in the Great Ice Age. The general level of the last 

 country may be higher, and precipitation on it may have been greater, 

 than in Greenland, but it is much narrower; in fact, its breadth 



