500 J. G. Goodchild—On Drift. 



beds over which it might pass, so that every trace of stratification 

 would sjDeedily be obliterated. 



The sliding motion communicated to the parts of the moraine 

 profonde, under the enormous pressure of the superincumbent mass of 

 ice, must have caused the included rock fragments to arrange them- 

 selves with their longer axes parallel to the direction of motion of 

 the bottom of the ice, and must have given rise to a kind of slicken- 

 siding along planes at right angles to the line of pressure, so that 

 along those planes the till might be expected to exhibit more or less 

 distinct traces of a kind of cleavage. 



Lastly, the greatest thickness of till must have accumulated in the 

 comparatively sheltered spots ; in situations exposed to the full force 

 of the icy currents little or no till could gather, save in the form of 

 thin lenticular patches. 



What we actually find is a series of , beds which locally contain a 

 few even well-preserved fossils, and which are often distinctly strati- 

 fied throughout, and occasionally exhibit many alternations of beds 

 of till, sand and gravel, loams, and laminated clays. Throughout, 

 the series is characterized by the presence of boulders the longer 

 axes of which are found lying in every possible direction. And, 

 lastly, the till may be found in as great force in the upper parts of 

 wide valleys in which it can be shown that the ice travelled upwards 

 — for instance the Eden Valley — as in the sheltered spots only within 

 which it ought to occur according to the moraine profonde theory. 



Doubtless, the want of accordance between the leading points of 

 the moraine profonde theory and the observed facts has been felt 

 with more or less force by nearly all geologists who have practically 

 investigated the subject. Other objections will probably occur to 

 eYQYj field geologist, but those indicated above seem to warrant us 

 in seeking to replace the moraine profonde theory by any other 

 which will better harmonize an equal number, or a greater number, 

 of facts. 



The laminated clays, which have been referred to above as forming 

 one of the members of the drift series, afford unmistakable evidence 

 that whatever agent produced them continued over the spot all the 

 while they were being formed. Small stones are frequently, and 

 even boulders, that is to say stones of more than one foot in diameter, 

 are occasionally found in the midst of them. Any current sufficiently 

 strong to transport these stones must have swept the fine clay much 

 farther from the source of the current. They are distinctly false- 

 bedded in different directions, and often at angles up to twenty 

 degrees or more ; whence it is obvious that they cannot have been 

 thrown down in water, otherwise the clay would have been spread 

 out in sheets with laminse nearly or quite horizontal. They are made 

 up of countless laminte of exceeding thinness, which show alter- 

 nations of sands of diiferent colours and of various degrees of coarse- 

 ness, from which it is clear, that whatever produced them acted 

 intermittently over the same sj)ot through long periods of time. 

 Puckered and highly contorted bands alternate with others in 

 which the bedding planes remain undisturbed; therefore the crumpling 



