134 Notices of Memoirs — Dr. Pencil's Ice Age in the Pyrenees. 



like Mr. Ashbnrner's with the coal contours in red, complicated as they 

 sometimes are with overturned dips, might besides advantageously 

 have surface contours in rather fine black lines, or in some other 

 colour. 

 Northampton, Mass. 



Die Eiszeit in den Pyrenaen. Von Dr. Albrkcht Penck. Mit 



einer Karte. Mittheilungen des Vereins fur Erdkunde zu 



Leipzig, 1883. 

 The Glacial Periob in the Pyrenees. By Dr. Albrecht Penck. 



With a Map. (Transactions of the Geographical Society of 



Leipzig, 1883.) 



THIS paper contains the general results of an investigation of the 

 ancient glacial phenomena of the Western Pyrenees, from San 

 Sebastian on the Atlantic coast to Montrejean on the Garonne, under- 

 taken with the object, amongst others, of determining the approximate 

 level of permanent snow at the time of the greatest extension of the 

 glaciers. Of this, the author's previous experiences in the Alps, 

 Scandinavia and Great Britain render him well fitted to judge. He 

 incidentally remarks that the similarity between the glacial pheno- 

 mena of the Pyrenees and those of the countries just named are very 

 striking. 



It has been stated by various authors, amongst others by Habenicht 

 and von Hochstetter, that the valleys of the western end of the 

 Pyrenees had been formerly filled by ice ; but Dr. Penck asserts that 

 there is not a trace of glaciation in the valleys of the affluents of the 

 Bidassoa, the Nive, and the Urumea, although the indentations of the 

 coast near San Sebastian and Fuenterrabia have a distant resemblance 

 to fiords. Although the highest peaks in this district reach an 

 elevation of 1400 m. (4600 feet), there are neither cirques, tarns, 

 nor moraines to be found, and their absence proves that in this 

 locality the line of permanent snow (Fernlinie) during the Glacial 

 period was at all events above this level. It is true that in places 

 there are huge boulders and scratched stones which have been 

 attributed toglaciers, but their distribution is very limited, and they 

 may be traced to the effects of landslips. 



The valley of the Saison is the most westerly on the French side of 

 the range in which glacial action appears. The average elevation of 

 the mountains which drain into it is 1740 m. (5707 feet), and the old 

 moraines can be traced to the level of 581 m. (1905 feet). In the 

 valley of the Aspe, to the east of the Saison, a moraine exists at the 

 level of 410 m. (1344 feet), and below this is a distinct basin now 

 filled up with gravels. Further eastwards, in the valley of the 

 Ossau, a terminal moraine has been noted at 350 m. (1148 feet), but 

 even below this level, scratched stones and moraines have been noted, 

 so that in the Pyrenees, as in the Al{)s, there is an outer zone of 

 moraines distinct from the so-termed end-moraine, and a great accu- 

 mulation of gravels was formed in the interval between the deposition 

 of the outer moi-aines and the later end-moraine. 



