740 GLACIAL GEOLOGY OF ARCTIC EUROPE, ETC. [Nov. 1 896, 



a height of from 50 to 60 feet. These beds contain numerous 

 stones, but neither tbey nor the stones themselves show any sign of 

 stratification ; in them I found shells of My a truncata, but in no 

 great quantity. That these beds are of submarine formation is con- 

 firmed by the existence of raised beaches in the neighbouring fiords, 

 and along the adjacent line of coast, at a higher elevation than the 

 beds which I am describing. Between the present face of the 

 glacier and the perpendicular wall of the mud-hills runs a sort of 

 ditch, dry moat, or open space some 30 yards in width, along the 

 entire front of the glacier. The bottom of this ditch or moat is 

 thickly strewed with morainic debris composed of rounded ice-worn 

 stones, many being deeply grooved, scarred, and scratched. Through 

 this slope of rocks and stones the glacier-streams were pouring forth 

 when I visited the spot in July 1894. 



If the glacier, as it now does, can force this immense quantity 

 of rounded and scratched stones from beneath it, the same process 

 must have been going on when its snout was submerged in the sea. 

 It seems to me that when emergence of the land is proceeding, as 

 it is now in Spitsbergen, there must come a period when the 

 water at the face of the glacier shoals sufficiently to allow of the 

 bay-ice which forms throughout the winter freezing deep enough 

 to incorporate the boulders of the moraine. This being so, quan- 

 tities of ice-scratched and ice-polished boulders, stones, and pebbles 

 must be floated away on the breaking up of the bay-ice in summer. 

 This would be a simple explanation of the occurrence of the vast 

 number of scratched erratics which are to be found in the glacio- 

 marine beds of Kolguev Island. 



It is well known, and has frequently been remarked by tra- 

 vellers in Greenland, that in the neighbourhood of many of the 

 glaciers discharging into the sea the water is discoloured with 

 sediment, and contains a large quantity of suspended material. 

 That this matter must in time be precipitated is evident ; and when 

 lifting the ship's anchor from the front of some of these glaciers 

 (notably the Tyndall Glacier in Bardin Bay on the north-western 

 side of Greenland) I have seen it come up with many pounds' 

 weight of unctuous mud intermixed with sea-shells adhering to the 

 flukes. It is therefore quite evident that water issuing from 

 under a glacier in the Polar regions, and discharging from under 

 the ice into the sea, can lay down glacio-marine beds in the ocean, 

 and that the occurrence of ice-scratched stones throughout these 

 beds can be accounted for. 



My object has been to set forth in this paper the effects of 

 glacio-marine action in the alteration of coast-lines, the deposi- 

 tion of boulder-clays, and the glaciation and polishing of rocks by 

 floating ice. I have not alluded to the glacio-terrene geology of 

 the Far North, as it would have extended this paper to unreasonable 

 limits. I have endeavoured to avoid theories and hypotheses, and 

 have confined myself to a bare narration of facts as I have observed 

 them and as I understand them. Do not suppose that for an instant 



