276 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



away by the ice. To the unequal erosive action of the glaciers 



might likewise be attributed the capricious manner in which 



the ledges appear now to be distributed. Thus in some places 



they might be partially or entirely effaced, while in others they 



would escape with only some inconsiderable abrasion. I do 



not conceal from myself that there are still difficulties which 



this suggestion may not help to remove. Thus it might be 



objected that the shelly deposits of Southern Scandinavia have 



not been demolished. These beds, however, are believed by all 



who have studied them both in Norway and Sweden, to belong 



without doubt to a period subsequent to the last great extension 



of the mer de glace, — there has been no general glaciation of 



Scandinavia since these beds were accumulated. Are we to 



believe then that the submergence which carried Southern 



Scandinavia in late glacial times down to a depth of 500 to 600 



feet, was not prolonged into the north of Norway ? That is by 



no means improbable. On the other hand, we might possibly 



explain the absence of high-level shell -beds in Northern 



Norway, by supposing, with my friend Mr. Helland, that the 



great fiords were up to a late period still filled with large 



glaciers like the ice-choked fiords of Greenland. We should 



thus have two periods of submergence for Scandinavia — the 



first during the last interglacial epoch, when Wales and Ireland 



were drowned to a depth of more than 1000 feet, and when 



Scotland also was deeply submerged ; and the second in late 



glacial times, when the ice was melting away, and a highly 



arctic fauna lived over the submerged parts of southern 



Norway and Sweden, — a stage corresponding to that of the 



late glacial marine and estuarine beds of Scotland. 



The great Erratic formation of Northern Germany has 

 yielded notable examples of interglacial deposits, the true 

 character of which, however, has only recently been recognised. 

 As I have indicated in a previous chapter, the drift accumula- 

 tions generally are supposed by many geologists to have 

 gathered upon the sea-bottom at a time when all the low 

 grounds of Denmark, Holland, Northern Germany, Poland, 



