The Bedshiel Kaims. By J. G. Goodchild, of H.M. 

 Geological Survey, F.G.S, F.Z.S., Curator of the 

 Collections of Scottish Geology and Mineralogy in 

 the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art. 



[Read Isfc June 1898, at the meeting at Marchmont, which 

 see p. 250.] 



Few departments of geology have given rise to greater 

 diversity of opinion than those relating to the origin of glacial 

 deposits. About the actual facts themselves there has been 

 an almost universal agreement; but, regarding the meaning 

 of those facts, one may fairly say that, until within the last 

 few years, there have been almost as many opinions as there 

 have been investigators. There were many reasons why this 

 was the case ; but perhaps one of the foremost of these may 

 be said to have arisen from the fact that observers have 

 only too often considered the subject from a purely local 

 point of view. Another reason that has led to this has 

 been that the behaviour of ice on a large scale, such as 

 that seen in Greenland, the Antarctic regions, and Alaska, 

 had not been properly studied by men of science until 

 within quite recent years. 



Amongst those in Scotland who, in past times, have 

 devoted much time and thought to inquiries connected with 

 glacial geology may be mentioned Mr Smith of Jordan Hill, 

 Mr T. F. Jamieson of Ellon, Mr Robert Chambers, and 

 lastly, but by no means least, the late Mr David Milne 

 Home. British geologists in general have long recognised 

 the fact that it is chiefly to the last-named gentleman that 

 we are indebted for numerous published papers, in which 

 are placed on record an extensive series of well-ascertained 

 facts bearing upon the later chapters of the geological 

 history of Britain. Upon this store of facts almost every 

 subsequent writer on the glacial geology of Britain has 

 drawn more or less for his materials ; a fact that, in itself, 

 bears significant testimony to the worth of Mr Milne Home's 

 contributions to geological science. 



There was no part of Scotland in the geology of which 

 Mr Milne Home took a keener interest than that of the 



