T. F. Jamieson — Oscillation of Land in Glacial Period. 463 



in some degree be permanent. All the Fjord coasts indeed seem to 

 present the aspect of depressed mountain lands. Deeply cut valleys 

 descending far below the level of the sea, with groups of islands and 

 skerries which look like tops of sunken hills, these lineaments show 

 that the land must have formerly stood at a much higher elevation. 

 And it is worthy of remark that along the western border of both 

 North and South America the Fjord districts show a sensible retreat 

 of the land within the general trend of the coast line, as if the 

 ocean had eaten away a bit of the country. This seems to show 

 that the land has never quite recovei'ed from the depression it 

 received during the Age of ice, although it has risen again to some 

 extent. 



The amount of depression in the regions of thickest ice was there- 

 fore probably far greater than is indicated by the raised shell-beds 

 and sea-beaches. This would lead us to infer, that at the commence- 

 ment of the ice-period the glaciated regions had a higher altitude 

 and a greater area of land than they now have, which would be 

 quite in harmony with the conditions favourable for the production 

 of glaciers. 



Lakes and Fjords. 

 If a land of glaciers was depressed and part of the depression 

 became permanent, it seems probable that there would be a tendency 

 to form lakes and fjords along the border of the depressed region, 

 more especially where its perimeter was intersected by the chief 

 river valleys. For, owing to the subsidence of the internal area, it 

 is evident the old lines of drainage issuing from it would be deranged 

 and interrupted by numerous depressions, which would create a 

 series of elongated hollows, and these hollows would become lakes 

 or fjords after the ice vanished. If there was also, as I have already 

 hinted, a tendency to bulge up in the region which lay immediately 

 outside the boundary of the depressed area, this would add to the 

 effect. 



To illustrate what I mean, take Switzerland for example, or rather 

 the region of the Alps. Here we have an irregular oval space of 

 country which was heavily loaded with ice. From the facts con- 

 nected with the Loess we have already found reason to believe that 

 this space suffei'ed depression during the Glacial period. Now, we 

 find a series of large deep lakes occurring in the valleys along the 

 skirt of this glaciated region, just where we might expect them to 

 be from the cause I have suggested. 



Take again, the seat of the great Canadian glacier. Here also we 

 find a series of hollows running all round it from the St. Lawrence 

 along by the great lakes. Lake Winnipeg, Lake Athabasca, the Great 

 Bear Lake, on to the mouth of the McKenzie River. Similar features 

 may be observed round the circuit of the Scandinavian glacier, and 

 other examples might be readily adduced ; but these will serve to 

 illustrate my meaning. 



In making the above suggestion, however, I by no means wish to 

 call in question the soundness of Sir Andrew Eamsay's theory, accord- 

 ing to which lake-basins are supposed to have been frequently 



