498 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



" The striated surfaces near the coast of jSrorthumlierland indicate a 

 coastTvise flow of ice from the northward, probably fi'om the Firth 

 of Forth — and the glaciers coming out from the Tjne and Tees were 

 deflected to the southward." 



These facts, read by the light of the marine theory, would imply 

 that there was a current from north to south along the east coast of 

 England. Eut, as 1 have repeatedly stated, the north of Scotland 

 stood at a higher level then, and -was connected with Scandinavia ; 

 and the south of England also was considerably elevated and joined 

 to France. The advancing marine transgression from the east invaded 

 therefore, first the low4ying parts of England, viz. the midland counties, 

 60 that a current in that direction was established from aU portions of 

 the east coast. Icebergs coming from the Scottish coast would natu- 

 rally travel along the present coast line to those parts of the lowlands 

 upon which the sea had encroached, and there, perhaps, press up into 

 some of the valleys. Later on, the whole of the lowlands of the mid- 

 land and northern counties of England were submerged, and the 

 waters of the North Sea joined those of the Irish Sea, and even 

 flooded the plain of Central Ireland.^ A communication, moreover, was 

 now established between this westward extension, fonned by the North 

 European Sea (see map on opposite page) andthe AtlanticOcean, byway 

 of the Severn valley, and the Irish Channel. At the entrance into these 

 two straits, the sea must have risen for a time to a very considerable 

 height, as evidenced by tlie occurrence of marine shells with sands 

 and gravels, on the Thi-ee Kock Mountain in Ireland (1300 feet) ; on 

 Moel Tryfan, in "Wales (1350 feet) ; and at Macclesfield, in Cheshire 

 (1200 feet). That an iceberg which originated from the Solway 

 glacier should cross the watershed, and flow in an eastward direction 

 and then southward, which would be the explanation of the pheno- 

 menon observed by Mr. Kendall, is no doubt curious, but though I 

 think there must have been one main current from the noi-th-east to- 

 the south-west, a number of minor ones may have existed round the 

 archipelago of islands which marked the site of Northern England at 

 this period. At any rate the case referred to must be looked upon as 



' "We have an excellent zoological proof of the former direct communication of 

 the Baltic witli the Irish Sea, •which latter I suppose extended over the plains of 

 Ireland, in the marine relic fauna of some of the Irish lakes. I drew attention 

 (p. 459) to the occuiTence of the Arctic marine crustacean Mysis relicta, in some of 

 the Swedish lakes, as a proof of the former suhmergence of the country. This 

 interesting crustacean has not yet heen discovered in England, but it occurs again 

 in Lough 2seagh in Ireland, thus showing the former continuity of the sea which 

 covered Sweden and that which covered Ireland. 



