294 Apparent objections to the Glacial Theory. 



softer materials composing the upper part into ridges and hillocks ; 

 but, he adds, it is difficult to comprehend how a capping of such 

 materials on the summit of a terminal moraine could have acquired 

 a stratified structure. At Cortachie, four miles below the barrier of 

 Glenairn, the Esk enters the lower country of old red sandstone ; 

 and a mile and a half farther down it, is joined by the Proson ; and 

 a mile yet lower, by the Carity. In the district where these streams 

 unite, there is a great amount of unstratified detritus full of Gram- 

 pian boulders, and covered for the most part with stratified gravel 

 and sand, in some places from thirty to forty feet thick." — Edin. 

 New Phil. Jour. No. 59, p. 201. 



Now the very circumstance of boulders occurring in the lower 

 part of these accumulations, while the upper portion is composed 

 of strata of gravel and sand, at once points out the action of water 

 rather than of glaciers ; for had the latter been the agent, we shall 

 at once perceive, that as the ice melted, the detritus would have 

 been indiscriminately deposited in a shapeless heap without refer- 

 ence to any law of specific gravity, such as the arrangement in the 

 above described moraines betokens. Lyell here seems to overlook 

 a fact recorded in his Principles of Geology ; " the moraine of 

 the glacier, observes Charpentier, is entirely devoid of stratification, 

 for there has been no sorting of the materials as in the case of sand, 

 mud, and pebbles, when deposited by running waters. The ice 

 transports indifferently into the same spots, the heaviest blocks and 

 the finest particles, mingling all together, and leaving them in one 

 confused and promiscuous heap wherever it melts." — LyelVs Prin. 

 Geol. p. 377. 



If this doctrine be correct, and it is clear from the manner in 

 which Lyell quotes it, that he believes it to be so, it is very evident 

 that the accumulations near Glenairn cannot be the production of 

 glaciers, and he indeed while describing them, seems to be re- 

 minded of the impossibility, although the desire of establishing a 

 novel and somewhat marvellous theory has urged him to persevere, 

 even in the face of facts which militate against it. 



On the other hand, this arrangement is in every respect that 

 which would have resulted from the action of retiring waters, for if 

 a sudden upheavement of our present continents or portions of 



