74 RAMSAY AND EVANS. — OBSERVATIONS IN GEOLOGY. 



travelled. In searching for fossils the rocks should be broken 

 along the planes of stratification rather than across them. 



Glacial Observations. 



The observer must be supposed to be already acquainted with 

 the phenomena of ordinary European glaciers such as those of 

 the Alps, and, by reading, with those of Greenland, and with the 

 subject, generally, of the ordinary glacial boulder clay and occa- 

 sional marine deposits holding shells, &c., so widely spread over 

 the North of Europe and America. In Greenland and any other 

 land he may visit it is important to notice : — 



a. Are linear surface moraines corresponding in direction with 

 what may be called the trend of the flow of the existing glacier 

 streams common or occasional, and are they similar to those on 

 the Alpine glaciers. If so, are any cliffs or bare slopes observ- 

 able from which the debris could have fallen from which such 

 moraines were derived. If cliff's bordering the glaciers are not 

 visible, the existence of such moraines would indicate their ex- 

 istence further inland. 



h. Are there any glaciers in high northern latitudes that do 

 not descend to the level of the sea, and, if so, what are the forms, 

 extent, and height of the terminal moraines that accumulate at 

 their ends. 



c. Observations, if possible, to be made on moraine matter 

 under the glacier ice, that is to say, between the glacier and the 

 rocky floor over which it flows {moraines profondes) ; the possible 

 extent and thickness of such moraine matter, and its coarseness, 

 fineness, other general characters, and mode of occurrence. Are 

 the ordinary phenomena of scratched stones common under such 

 circumstances, and especially are large boulders found there. Are 

 they ice-scratched. 



d. Can the thickness of tha ice of certain glaciers be ascer- 

 tained which pass seaward beyond the shore or fines of sea-cliff", and 

 which at their ends may be supposed to grate along the sea- 

 bottom. This may be done by soundings at the ends of such 

 glaciers, in conjunction with estimates of the height of ih.^ surface 

 of the glaciers above the level of the sea. 



e. Where glaciers protrude out to sea and there expand after 

 the manner of the Rhone glacier, where at its lower end it 

 protrudes and expands in a wide valley, is it possible to form an 

 idea of the shape of the ground on either side of the valley 

 through which the thicker mass of the glacier ice descends to 

 the sea. Is it likely to be merely undulating ground somewhat 

 higher than the valley, or hilly or even mountainous, the whole 

 region being more or less smothered in ice. In connexion with 

 this it may be asked, is the so-called continental ice of western 

 Greenland to a great extent ao ice sheet formed independently of 

 mountains that bound deep valleys, the slopes of the bottoms of 

 these valleys being westward or in the far north, is it an exaggera- 

 tion of a ^system of confluent glaciers generated by high mountains 

 on the east side of the continent or elsewhere. 



