436 Reports and Proceedings. 



In this paper the author entered into an extended inquiry how far 

 the formation of the Boulder-clays and other glacial remains in 

 Scotland and the North of England can be accounted for, on the 

 theory of a great ice-covering having at one time overlain the coun- 

 try in much the same manner as it now does Greenland and other 

 extreme Arctic countries. Taking the hypothesis of Agassiz as his 

 groundwork, Dr. Brown entered into a minute description of the 

 present glacier- system of Greenland, and the nature of Arctic ice- 

 action ; and into an inquiry how far glacial remains in Britain 

 correspond with those at present in course of formation in Green- 

 land, and at the bottom of Baffins Bay, Davis's Straits, and the 

 Fjords and bays adjoining these seas. These inquiries were com- 

 menced in the year 1861, and have been continued at intervals 

 ever since up to the present summer in various portions of the 

 Arctic regions, the Continent of Europe, in Great Britain, and in 

 North America across to the Pacific. The results of these extended 

 researches have led him to conclude — 1. That the subazoic boulder- 

 clay corresponds with the moraine profonde which underlies glaciers, 

 and in all likelihood is the immediate base on which the ice-cap of 

 Greenland rests. 2. That the fossiliferous, laminated, or brick-clays 

 find their counterpart in the thick impalpable mud which the sub- 

 glacial streams are pouring into the sea, filling up the Fjords, even 

 shoaling the sea far out, and absolutely in some cases turning the 

 glaciers from their course into other valleys. Allowing the very 

 moderate computation that this impalpable mud accumulates at the 

 rate of only 6 inches per annum, a deposit of fifty feet in a cen- 

 tury must form. 



If Scotland was at one time covered with an ice-cap, or had gla- 

 ciers of any extent (as cannot be doubted), then this deposit must 

 have been equally forming, and, as a geological formation, must be 

 accounted for. No difference could be detected between this glacial 

 mud and the present brick-clays, and every fact went to show that 

 it was to this source we must look for the formation of these lami- 

 nated fossiliferous clays. The amount of earth deposited on the 

 bottom by icebergs was very insignificant indeed, and could in no 

 degree account for the houlder-clay, though it was shown that much 

 of the loulder-drift in some places could be so accounted for. It was, 

 however, demonstrated that there was a great distinction between 

 the boulders which belonged to the moraine profonde and those which 

 were carried off on icebergs as part of the ordinary lateral moraines. 



The Fjords, as already partially advocated in a paper in the Journal 

 of the Eoyal Geographical Society (vol. xxxix.), he considered due to 

 glacier action, the glaciers having taken possession of these Fjords 

 when they were mere valleys, and the coast was higher than now. 

 He further showed that the American explorers are in error when they 

 describe the coast of Greenland as rising to the north of 73°, and 

 subsiding to the south of that parallel. There had been a former rise 

 of the coast, and a fall was now in course of progress through the 

 whole extent. Whether these had previously alternated with other 

 rises and falls is not clearly evidenced by remains, but no doubt 



