226 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



animals drowned by the inundation, spreading first one and then 

 the other in irregular beds and lenticular masses ; while the 

 final emergence, more sudden and consequently of greater effect, 

 swept down the overlying debris." " Or again," he says, " it is 

 possible that a succession of waves caused by earthquake-move- 

 ments may have swept at short intervals over the adjacent land." 

 There are several objections which might be urged to this 

 theory, not the least forcible of which is the fact that deposits 

 similar in all respects to the " head " occur in many places which 

 are far enough removed from the sea. They are forming now 

 in the Kocky Mountains and other alpine regions. Thick 

 sheet-like accumulations of angular blocks, debris, and rubbish, 

 which are not of morainic origin, may be observed covering low 

 grounds in the Southern Uplands and Northern Highlands of 

 Scotland in places where they have long ceased to accumulate. 

 I have referred to the limestone-breccias of Gibraltar, and to the 

 general abundance of angular debris and drift in many regions 

 where no such deposits are now taking place. If we consider 

 the fact that during the height of the Glacial Period all Northern 

 Europe was covered with a vast ice-sheet, and that at the same 

 time snow-fields and glaciers existed in almost every hilly region 

 not only in the central but even in the southern regions of our 

 continent, we need have little difficulty in accepting Mr. Godwin- 

 Austen's view that the " head " is due to the action of severe 

 climatic conditions. The transport of the materials outwards 

 from the base of the cliffs I would explain in the same manner 

 as that of the angular debris which has travelled from the base 

 of the Eock of Gibraltar and overspread the low grounds of 

 Buena Vista and Eosia. Besides hard frosts, the "head" betrays 

 the former action of nevS, of melting snows and floods. It is 

 quite in accordance with this view that we find on both sides of 

 the Channel evidence of floating-ice during the Glacial Period. 

 Several large erratics of granite, syenite, and other rocks, occur 

 at Pagham, on the Sussex coast, which must have been transported 

 to their present position by floating-ice coming from Brittany. 

 And Dr. Barrois has described a coarse conglomerate at Kerguille, 



