276 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



away by the ice. To the unequal erosive action of the glaciers 

 might likewise be attributed the capricious manner in which 

 the ledges appear now to be distributed. Thus in some places 

 they might be partially or entirely effaced, while in others they 

 would escape with only some inconsiderable abrasion. I do 

 not conceal from myself that there are still difficulties which 

 this suggestion may not help to remove. Thus it might be 

 objected that the shelly deposits of Southern Scandinavia have 

 not been demolished. These beds, however, are believed by all 

 who have studied them both in Norway and Sweden, to belong 

 without doubt to a period subsequent to the last great extension 

 of the mer de glace, — there has been no general glaciation of 

 Scandinavia since these beds were accumulated. Are we to 

 believe then that the submergence which carried Southern 

 Scandinavia in late glacial times down to a depth of 500 to 600 

 feet, was not prolonged into the north of Norway ? That is by 

 no means improbable. On the other hand, we might possibly 

 explain the absence of high-level shell -beds in Northern 

 Norway, by supposing, with my friend Mr. Helland, that the 

 great fiords were up to a late period still filled with large 

 glaciers like the ice-choked fiords of Greenland. We should 

 thus have two periods of submergence for Scandinavia — the 

 first during the last interglacial epoch, when Wales and Ireland 

 were drowned to a depth of more than 1000 feet, and when 

 Scotland also was deeply submerged ; and the second in late 

 glacial times, when the ice was melting away, and a highly 

 arctic fauna lived over the submerged parts of southern 

 Norway and Sweden, — a stage corresponding to that of the 

 late glacial marine and estuarine beds of Scotland. 



The great Erratic formation of Northern Germany has 

 yielded notable examples of interglacial deposits, the true 

 character of which, however, has only recently been recognised. 

 As I have indicated in a previous chapter, the drift accumula- 

 tions generally are supposed by many geologists to have 

 gathered upon the sea -bottom at a time when all the low 

 grounds of Denmark, Holland, Northern Germany, Poland, 



