I04 THE GLACIAL PHENOMENA OF THE COUNTRY 



Grange, and south through Gosforth, remain now completely 

 choked with drift matter, the existence of which would be un- 

 suspected but for the careful consideration of the distribution 

 of drift and rock in the surrounding country, and for the 

 evidence revealed in the deep borings and sinkings which 

 have been made for water and coal. 



During the first period of glaciation the main movement of 

 ice was undoubtedly from the west and north-west, and the pre- 

 ponderating number of quite local rocks, along with the scarcity 

 of far-travelled rocks which seems to distinguish the till of this 

 region from that of the T3'ne Valley, points to the fact that 

 the high land between them was not greatly overridden by ice 

 from further west and south. Some mixing evidently did take 

 place on a small scale, as is evident from the occurrence of 

 boulders of granite in the till. Towards the east of the area 

 the typical porphyrites of the Cheviots increase in number, 

 especially in the less stony clays above the boulder clay 

 proper, from which it would appear that with the progress of 

 glaciation the ice had more a northerly origin, particularly 

 that portion of it which traversed the lower-lying lands. 



Professor Lebour has pointed out to me that the ice at its 

 first oncoming would transport most of the loose talus material 

 to lower levels, but that later sheets, having little to act upon 

 but the smooth high-lying stretches of rock, would carry 

 chiefly finely ground matter, which on the melting of the ice 

 would be left behind as a fine mud. Such a view would 

 enable one to understand the formation of the less stony clays, 

 the origin of which has been ascribed to the action of the 

 sea upon the boulder clay proper during the depression 

 of the land which followed upon the Ice Age. This latter 

 explanation, though quite feasible, not to say probable, in the 

 case of the flat lands bordering the coast,* is obviously in- 

 applicable to the greater part of the country at present under 

 examination. 



* As for example the Boldon Flats. See Woolacott in the paper cited above, 

 "Superficial Deposits, etc.," p. 66. 



