1862.] JAMTESON GLACIATION OF SCOTLAND. 181 



the ease would certainly be very marvellous ; for even in Greenland, 

 except at its nortliern extremity, the lower limit of the ice-covering. 

 Rink tells us, is far above the coast-line, and it is only the larger 

 glaciers that protrude into the sea ; in the intermediate tracts, the 

 snow and ice lying below the level of 2000 feet annually disappear 

 before the heat of June. The whole of Norway, Sweden, and Lap- 

 land appears to be ice-worn from the mountain-tops down to the sea, 

 and a general view of the whole brings out the fact that the scores 

 radiate from the central heights to all points of the compass. Along 

 the coast of JS'orway they run to W. and 'N.'W. ; in Lapland, to IS". 

 and N.E. ; in Sweden, to E. and S.E.* 



The phenomena, as a whole, seem to be better explained by land- 

 ice moving from the central plateaux downwards and outwards than 

 by any other theory f. In order, therefore, to account for this great 

 glaciation of Britain and Scandinavia by land-ice, it is necessary, I 

 think, to suppose that the elevation of these countries above the sea 

 must have been much greater than at present. As regards Scotland, 

 indeed, there can be little doubt of this, if we admit the markings I 

 have described to have been caused by that agency ; for along all the 

 wide mouths of its sea-lochs or fiords the glacial scoring everywhere 

 dives in full development underneath the present sea-level, and the 

 same appears to be the fact in Korway and Sweden. "Without sup- 

 posing some such elevation, I do not see how a degree of cold at all 

 like what seems to have prevailed can be accounted for, without sup- 

 posing either the sun's heat to have suffered some great diminution, 

 or the position of the earth's axis to have differed from what it is 

 at present ; and, even granting the elevation, the fact is very re- 

 markable. 



§ 8. But, while apportioning to land-ice its due share in the events 

 of the Drift-period, let us not forget the strong evidence which we 

 possess of the great submergence that took place afterwards. E'o 

 action of land-ice, for example, will account for the marine shells and 

 chalk-flints on Moel Tryfan, in Wales, at the height of 1392 feet ; 

 and a mass of good evidence has been collected to show that this sub- 

 mergence amounted to at least some hundreds of feet in various parts 

 of England, Scotland, and Ireland, as well as in the Scandinavian 



* It is alleged, however, by Horbye and others, that in the midland region 

 there is a remarkable exception to this rule. They state, indeed, that between 

 lat. 62° and 63^°, the erosive agent proceeding out of the relatively low ground 

 of Sweden has marched U2)hill right over the Dovrefjeld ! " Sans exception, toutes 

 les stries qui se trouvent sur la frontiere mentionnee entre le 62™^ et 63-| degre de 

 latitude ont leur point de depart dans les contrees de la Suede relativement 

 plus basses." (Horbye sur les Phenomenes 'd' erosion en Norvege, p. 40.) And 

 the author of the memoir quoted had traced this '^ burina^e erratique" to an 

 elevation of 4590 Norwegian feet above the sea : he also quotes the authority 

 of M. Durocher in support of this assertion as to the ascending movement of 

 the erosive agent. 



t "We generally find that the polished or opposing side (Stos-Seite) of the 

 rocks is turned towards the principal plateaux of these countries. It is from 

 these plateaux that the impelling power seems to have originated which deter- 

 mined the direction of the bodies which scooped out the grooves." (Bohtlink, 

 Ed. New Phil. Joum. xxxi. p. 253.) 



