250 DR JAMES GEIKIE ON 
shores of the fiord. Intercalated lenticular beds of gravel, clay, and sand 
occur here and there. 
The distribution of the till and the mode of its occurrence harmonised com- 
pletely with the appearance presented by the glaciated rocks ; it lay either upon 
low undulating grounds, or was closely packed together behind rocks, whose 
abraded and ice-worn faces were quite destitute of any such covering. All the 
stones and boulders in the till were of local origin, and in the many exposures 
which we examined we never saw a single fragment which might not have been 
derived from the islands themselves—all consisting of basalt-rocks and tuff, and 
chiefly of the former. This till, we had no doubt whatever, represents the 
eround-moraine, or moraine de fond of the old ice-sheet that covered the islands. 
On steep slopes and in situations which must have been exposed to the full force 
of the ice-flow not a scrap of till appeared. 
4. Erratics and Morainic Débris.—Large angular blocks of basalt-rock are 
of common occurrence throughout the islands, but in some districts they are 
more conspicuous than in others. In the vicinity of Thorshavn they are specially 
numerous, and many of them attain a large size, measuring occasionally upwards 
of 20 feet across. They occupy positions which preclude the possibility of their 
having fallen or rolled down from the hills, and as they are now and again 
associated with coarse morainic débris, I do not doubt that they have been 
deposited in their present positions during the melting of the ice-sheet. An 
excellent exposure of morainic débris, consisting of earth and angular fragments 
of all shapes and sizes up to large blocks, may be seen on the road that leads 
out of Thorshayn on the way to Kirkebée. Large blocks are frequently seen 
dotting the hill-slopes in greater or lesser numbers throughout all the islands, 
and not a few may have had a glacial origin, but in many cases such isolated 
blocks and morainic débris can hardly be distinguished from the loose fragments 
which are disengaged even now by the action of frost, and rolled down from the 
upper parts of the hills. It is noticeable, however, that while perched blocks 
are quite absent from hill-tops which give no evidence of glaciation, they are 
yet often scattered abundantly over the surface of high ground which has been 
glacially abraded. This is well seen upon the ridge between Gidthe and Skaale- 
fiord, where isolated erratics are sprinkled about upon the moutonnée surface. 
But even in the valleys I found true morainic débris less plentiful than might 
have been expected. In Kolfaredal, for example, only a slight sprinkling 
occurred, and in many cases this débris might quite well have resulted from 
the shattering by frost of the rocks im situ. This was particularly well seen 
in Saxen valley, where immediately below the lake the bottom of the valley is 
filled with what appear at a first glance to be hummocks of morainic matter. 
I found, however, that many of those hummocks were mere knobs and bosses 
of basalt-rock screened and masked by their own ruins. Whether some of the 
