ANCIENT GLACIERS IN EASTERN HEMISPHERE. 165 



effects of this general glaciation are clearly seen in the 

 mantle of unstratified drift material which overspread the 

 hills ; in the moutonnee appearance of the entire island ; 

 and in the transport of boulders of local rocks. The 

 striations upon rock surfaces show a constancy of direc- 

 tion in agreement with the boulder transport which can 

 be ascribed to no other agency than a great continuous 

 sheet of such dimensions as to ignore minor hills and 

 valleys. 



" The disposition of the striae is equally conclusive, for 

 we find that on a stepped escarpment of limestone both 

 the horizontal and the vertical faces are striated contin- 

 uously and obliquely from the one on to the other, showing 

 that the ice had a power of accommodating itself to the 

 surface over which it passed that could not be displayed 

 by floating ice. There is a remarkable fact concerning 

 the distribution of boulders on this island which would 

 strike the most superficial observers, namely, that foreign 

 rocks are confined to the low grounds. It might be 

 argued that the local ice always retained its individuality, 

 and so kept the foreign ice with its characteristic boulders 

 at bay. But, apart from the a priori improbability of so 

 small a hill-cluster achieving what the Lake District 

 could not accomplish, the fact that Snae Fell, an isolated 

 conical hill, is swathed in drift from top to bottom, is 

 quite conclusive that the foreign ice must have got in. 

 Why, then, did it carry no stones with it ? The following 

 suggestion I make not without misgivings, though there 

 are many facts to which I might appeal that seem strong- 

 ly corroborative : 



" The hilly axis of the island runs in a general north- 

 east and southwest direction, and it rises from a great 

 expanse of drift in the north with singular abruptness, 

 some of the hills being almost inaccessible to a direct ap- 

 proach without actual climbing. I imagine that the ice 

 which bore down upon the northern end of the island 



