
Part V. Sxor. i.§2.]. PLEISTOCENE. 897 
moved outwards from the axis of the peninsula down the western fjords 
- into the Atlantic, and southwards and south-eastwards into the Baltic. 
‘The march of the ice is likewise well marked by the dispersion of the 
- erratic blocks. The subsequent partial submergence of the country is 
proved by numerous shell-bearing clays. The fossils in +he higher 
littoral shell-beds indicate a more Arctic climate; they include, as in 
the Scottish glacial clays, great numbers of thick-shelled varieties of Mya 
truncata and Saxicava rugosa; also Balanus porcatus, B. crenatus, Mytilus 
edulis, Pecten islandicus, Buccinum grenlandicum, Trophon scalariforme (T. 
clathratum), Natica clausa. The clays of deeper water contain Leda 
lanceolata (Yoldia arctica), Yoldia intermedia, Y. pygmexa, Dentalium abys- 
sorum, &c. ‘The fossiliferous deposits of lower levels point to a climate 
more nearly approaching the present, for the more thoroughly Arctic 
species disappear, and the thick-shelled varieties of Mya and Sawicava 
pass into the usual thin-shelled kinds. The remarkable terraces that 
fringe the coast of Norway from the southern or Christiania region to 
_ the North Cape mark pauses in the re-elevation of the land. The eastern 
plains of Sweden and the lower grounds of southern Norway are marked 
by great accumulations of sand and gravel (ésar) like the kames of 
Scotland and the eskers of Ireland. 
Germany.—Since the year 1878 an active exploration of the earlier 
memorials of the glacial period has been carried on in northern Germany, 
with the result of bringing out more clearly the evidence for the pro- 
longation of the Scandinavian and Finland ice across the Baltic and the 
plains of Germany even into Saxony. The limits reached by the ice are 
approximately fixed by the line to which northern erratics can be traced. 
‘Above the glaciated rocks comes a stiff, unstratified clay, with ice-striated 
blocks of northern origin—the till or boulder-clay. Traces of submer- 
gence are indicated by overlying beds containing Tellina solidula, Cyprina 
islandica, Cardium edule, &c., while some of the lakes which occupied 
hollows in the drift when the ice retired are indicated by stratified 
deposits with Paludina diluviana, &c. 
In southern Germany representatives of the boulder-clay occur in 
those regions which lay within the area overspread by the glaciers of 
the Alps and other high grounds. Hlsewhere Pleistocene deposits 
consist of river-terraces, loess, cave-earth, cave-breccia, and peat. A 
_ wide area of the lower plains of the Danube, extending into the Carpa- 
thians and Transylvania, is covered with loess. The fine calcareous 
loam known by this name attains also a great development in the valley 
of the Rhine, where it has been long known and studied, especially 
between Basel and Mayence, rising in some places to 800 feet above 
the level of the river, occupying tributary valleys and even spread- 
_ing over the adjoining table-land. The same deposit is traceable below 
the gorge of the Rhine, spreading out over the low grounds and 
merging into the Hesbayan mud of Belgium (p. 887), which extends 
to near Dunkirk on the French coast. This great accumulation of fine 
detritus is not well stratified, and has sufficient coherence to form per- 
pendicular bluffs. It has been regarded as due to the deposit of glacial 
mud during the more rapid melting of the great Alpine glaciers towards 
the close of the Ice Age, but it bears some traces of a subaerial origin 
(pp. 322, 384). Though on the whole unfossiliferous, it contains sometimes 
numerous land-shells of the same species as still inhabit the Rhine valley 
3 M 
