1862.] JAMIESON GLACIATION OP SCOTLAND. 167 



has led me to believe that no modification of this agency will meet 

 the requirements of the case, and that, in the great majority of 

 instances, this grinding down of the rocks has, in Scotland at least, 

 been caused by the long- continued movement of land-ice and gla- 

 ciers ; — that, in short, when this abrasion took place, our country 

 stood quite above the level of the sea, and probably formed part of 

 an extensive northern continent ; and that the submergence which 

 led to the formation of the marine beds, with arctic shells, was a 

 phenomenon subsequent to this great glaciation. 



One of the first things which convinced me that no icebergs run- 

 ning aground, nor pack-ice driven by the winds, nor coast-ice lashed 

 by the breakers, could explain the case, was the observation that it 

 was always the land- side of the rocks — the exposure facing the 

 highest mountains of the interior- — that was most worn and polished, 

 the side fronting the sea being in comparison much more rugged and 

 angular, No instance occurred to me that could be explained by a 

 motion of ice coming from the sea towards the land, while the boul- 

 ders and scratched pebbles, when traced to their sources, also indicated 

 a seaward transport. Thus, along the eastern border of Aberdeen- 

 shire, the glacial striae and scores run from west to east ; in my own 

 neighbourhood at Ellon, the general direction is nearly due E. and W., 

 or a few degrees to the IST. of W. ; and a low tract of syenitic greenstone 

 has yielded a profusion of large blocks which have been all carried 

 towards the E., while the smaller scratched pebbles are of the kinds 

 which would be got from rocks to the W., many of the varieties not 

 occurring in any other direction, and it is the western sides of the rocks 

 that are most worn and scratched. Again, at Aberdeen, the surface 

 of the granite, when newly uncovered, shows the glacial striae and 

 grooves pointing a few degrees to the S. of W., in the direction of the 

 valley of the Dee, the rounded and polished faces of the rocks looking 

 up the valley. On the southern shores of the Moray Erith, between 

 Banff and Troup Head, I found glacial markings pointing S.E. and 

 sometimes S.W. ; and along the shores of the Eirth of Eorth a mul- 

 titude of instances have been recorded by Hall, Maclaren, Chambers, 

 and Fleming, all indicating a movement from W. to E., and at Stir- 

 ling from N.W. Such is the case in the low grounds along the 

 east seaboard of the island. But when I went to study the facts on 

 the west coast, I found it was no longer the same side of the rocks 

 that had been ground down ; it is there the east and north-east fronts 

 that have suffered most abrasion, and the scores and striae that streak 

 the rocky shores of the fiords of Argyleshire are just such as might be 

 expected from the action of ice moving down from the mountains. 

 The markings along these sea-lochs are often very striking, and 

 have attracted the notice of Agassiz, Murchison, and Maclaren, 

 who have all insisted on the fact of the rounded striated surfaces 

 being invariably presented to the interior, and the rough jagged 

 fronts to the sea. Prof. Nicol has also chronicled the direction of the 

 striae, as noticed by Sir Roderick Murchison and himself, in several 

 of the glens along the eastern, northern, and western seaboards of Eoss 



