400 Glaciers of North Wales. 



well acquainted with the country, and can vouch for the 

 accuracy of his observations, and what makes them of 

 special value in this inquiry is, that such striations range 

 from a few feet up to 40, 100, 200, 300, 550, 775, 

 1,100, and 1,375 feet above the sea, and at many 

 intermediate elevations. 



One great fact which they teach is this, that the 

 broad and thick ice-sheet, urged onward from the north, 

 buried the whole of the region described, and all the 

 ground to the east as far as the sea, and further, that the 

 glacier moulding itself to the shape of the country 

 (after the manner of all glaciers), was pressed right 

 onward with so much force, that the long northern 

 slopes of the east and west valleys offered comparatively 

 no more impediment to its onward march, than an 

 occasional transverse bar of rock hinders the onward 

 flow of a river. Occasionally there are striations 

 that do not quite conform to the rule, but in some cases 

 I feel convinced that these were due to undercurrents 

 in the ice in some of the deeper valleys, and at a later 

 date to minor glaciers that got specialised in the valleys 

 during the decline and disappearance of the ice-sheet. 



At Liverpool, and on the opposite side of the Mersey, 

 Mr. Morton observed on the Keuper Sandstone certain 

 ice-grooves, trending S. 35 E. 1 , and it seems to me that 

 this direction is connected with the circumstance that 

 when the northern ice-sheet reached the rising ground 

 of Denbighshire and Flintshire, it was deflected to the 

 right and left, and while one part flowed south-easterly 

 across the plains and undulations of Cheshire, another 

 part flowed south-westerly, and, scraping the coast hills 

 of North Wales, overwhelmed Anglesea and the low 

 ground of Lleyn that forms the north horn of Cardigan 

 1 * Reports of British Association, Liverpool,' 1870. 



