part 3] lcess, etc. of the Durham coast. 187 



To my mind the}' show that icebergs in the North Sea had no 

 action in distributing the boulders, and, in fact, the sea was 

 entirely displaced by the great Scandinavian ice-sheet, which seems 

 to have induced analogous steppe-like continental conditions of 

 climate in England round its margin allowing the formation 

 of similar loess-deposits. The evidence pointing to an Interglacial 

 episode for the accumulation and subsequent decalcification of this 

 deposit is discussed later. 



After the retreat of the Scandinavian ice-sheet from the Durham 

 <!oast, we are concerned solely with the local English and Scottish 

 Glacial deposits, which I am inclined to correlate with the third 

 and latest Glacial deposits of Scandinavia and the North. 



Climatic conditions, from one cause or another, had so altered in 

 England that, at this period, the local glaciers occupied the coastal 

 'district in sufficient strength and thickness to hold off the 

 Scandinavian ice from the coast, although they were themselves 

 influenced and diverted to the south and south-west by its presence 

 up to the latest period of glaciation. 



The evidence of possible Interglacial intervals in the local Drifts 

 is discussed later. 



Since no true loess has apparently been recorded in the British 

 Isles in connexion with the local Grlacial Drifts, it is to be assumed 

 that the conditions prevailing during or after the occupation of 

 the country by the local ice-sheets did not admit of the formation 

 of that peculiar deposit. This is only what one might expect, 

 in view of the fact that the climate is, and probably also was at 

 that period, of an oceanic and not a continental character. 



VII. Evidence pointing- to Interglaciai Periods among the 

 Durham Coastal Drifts. 



When the Drifts are carefully examined, and the old hollows and 

 Preglacial valleys carefully searched, the evidence in favour of at 

 least one Interglacial episode becomes strengthened rather than 

 weakened ; although anyone taking a cursory glance at the Glacial 

 ■deposits, and observing only the thick mass of the Northern Cheviot 

 Main Drift of the Durham coast deposited during the latest stage 

 of glaciation, might be inclined to assert that there had been only 

 one Grlacial episode. 



The evidence that a pause of the nature and duration of an 

 Interglacial period occurred between the retreat of the Scandi- 

 navian ice-sheet from the Durham coast and the oncoming of the 

 local British glaciers seems to me to be wry convincing. 



The most important piece of evidence is, of course, that afforded 

 by the bed of material which I have called ' loess,' resembling so 

 closely the Continental lo'ss in its physical and chemical properties 

 as to put its identity practically beyond question. On the Continent 

 this material is generally accepted as evidence of Interglacial and 

 steppe-like conditions, and the calcareous concretions that occur 



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