296 Prof. A. C. Ramsay on the Glacial Theory of Lake- Basins. 



sion of the mountains there also ? Does this theory of depres- 

 sion apply to the Scandinavian chain and the Swedish lakes, 

 upon which Dr. Torrel told me my theory threw so much light ? 

 Is Sir Charles prepared, if necessary, to apply it to the Vosges 

 and the Black Forest ? Will it meet the case of the lakes of 

 the Pyrenees, which, I am informed, quite conform to my views ? 

 and were the greater rock-basins of Cumberland formed by a 

 depression of the centre of that cluster of mountains, so that, 

 instead of the lakes ranging on either side of a line of strike, 

 they all radiate outwards from a centre ? How will it suit 

 Loch Lomond, Loch Katrine, and Loch Awe in Scotland, or, 

 better still, Loch Ericht, Loch Rannoch, and Loch Lydach, which 

 stand towards each other something like the legs of an old Isle 

 of Man penny ? and what of all the other myriad lakes of the High- 

 lands, which trend east and west, south-east and north-west, north 

 and south, and to every point of the compass, in accordance 

 with the run of the valleys that gave a direction to the flow of 

 the old glaciers ? Were the marine lochs — -once glacier-filled land- 

 valleys — that open south into the Clyde, west into the Atlantic, 

 and north into the North Sea, and which are generally deepest 

 (like Loch Lomond) towards their heads — were they also tilted 

 up at their ends by depression of the inland mountains ? for no 

 one who studies them is likely to assert that they are shallower 

 nearer their mouths by mere gathering of sediment. And what 

 about the lakes on the north watershed of the Himalayah ? Is 

 there no risk that we may be obliged to add 15,000 or 20,000 

 feet to the stature of that gigantic range to meet the exigencies 

 of the case ? When we come to the mountains and the rolling 

 undulations of North America, where vast tracts are covered 

 with unnumbered lakes, many of which are as large as those of 

 Switzerland, what a variety of tiltings in all directions must 

 have been produced to dam up basins, the outflows of which 

 run towards every point of the compass ! It must be remem- 

 bered, too, that Sir Charles's supposition may be applied equally 

 to these tracts, whether the lakes are entirely enclosed by rocks, 

 or were dammed up by moraines and drift after the disap- 

 pearance of the glaciers. 



If, however, it be objected that the tilting that produced the 

 great lakes on the south side of the Alps was not the result of a 

 special sinking of the centre of the chain, let us take another 

 supposition, viz. that the main line of depression lay on an east 

 and west line, on the parallel of the north end of the Lago 

 Maggiore and the Lago di Como ; then, if the hinge or axis of 

 movement lay east and west on a line at or near the south end of 

 these lakes, the amount of depression for the north end of Mag- 

 giore would be about 7000 to 8000 feet, and that of Como 



