108 Anniversary Address. 



raised above sea level, would be at least partially obliterated 

 during the subsidence to which this ancient formation has 

 since been subjected, before it could be protected by subse- 

 quently formed deposits. Kaims must have been formed 

 during the glacial period as well as at all other times, but I 

 maintain that the agency of water alone is suiRcient to ac- 

 count for all the appearances exhibited by the Bedshiel and 

 many other kaims. Laden icebergs grounding upon a ridge 

 like the Chesil bank, would, doubtless, to some extent, force 

 it out of shape, and we would find disturbed stratification of 

 the sand and gravel, associated with confused deposits of 

 clay and boulders, left as memorials of their visits. But we 

 find no such deposits connected with the Bedshiel kaims and 

 others at a high level, and the boulder clay is a formation 

 which we all know to be of great tenacity and capable of re- 

 sisting the action of water as well as, if not better than, the 

 hardest rock. Upon the whole I am of opinion that these 

 high level kaims were formed and raised above the water 

 prior to the glacial ejioch, which, on this view, must have 

 occupied a part of the unnumbered ages which have elapsed 

 between the time of their formation and the commencement 

 of the historic period. If I am correct in this opinion, records 

 of the glacial period may be looked for in connection with 

 the lower lying kaims, just as we find them marked upon 

 rock surfaces in situ as well as on travelled boulders ; but, 

 however great the quantity of ice swept by currents during 

 many ages, over the then submerged portion of this district, 

 it should be remembered that these ice-streams were but of 

 occasional occurrence when compared with the continuous 

 working of the great western current which bore them along, 

 conjoined with the bi-diurnal ebb and flow of the tides, even 

 leaving out of consideration the powerful mechanical action 

 of exceptional high tides or of great storms. 



Although no remarkable novelties in botany or zoology are 

 reported as having been observed at any of our field meetings 

 during the summer, such being indeed scarcely to be ex- 

 pected considering how often and carefully our district has 



