THE GEOLOGY OF THE FAROE ISLANDS. 263 
1st. Long after the general mer de glace had become reduced to a series of 
small isolated glaciers, it is probable that snow and névé may have continued 
to cover the land so as to protect the rocks from the excessive waste which 
they now experience. The superficial moraines, therefore, need not have been 
very extensive. 
2d. Again, we must remember that the conformation of the ground, unlike 
that of the Alps, would not favour the preservation of large valley-glaciers 
after the snow-fall had become less, and the snow-line had retreated to a 
higher level. The ice which formerly occupied all the valleys of the Ferdées 
could only have been sustained by the copious precipitation of snow over the 
whole land-surface. But when the line of perennial snow had risen to 1000 
feet or thereabout, only a few local glaciers would probably exist at the heads 
of the valleys, while glaciers remaniés would be distributed along the flanks of 
the valleys at all those points where torrents and cascades presently appear. 
There would be no large trunk glaciers formed by the union of considerable 
lateral glaciers, as in the valleys of the Alps. Thus there would be a general 
absence of terminal moraines in the middle of a wide valley, for the superficial 
débris would be distributed chiefly along the flanks of the glaciers and in front 
of the small glaciers remaniés. Moreover, the moraines thus formed would tend 
to become obscured by the gradual accumulation upon them in post-glacial 
and recent times of rock-rubbish detached by the weather from the cliffs above. 
3d. But the principal reason for the apparent scarcity of valley-moraines 
was probably the continuous and comparatively rapid dissolution of the ice 
after the snow-line had retreated several hundred feet above the sea level. 
The ice would appear to have made no long pauses in the valleys, as the 
ancient valley-glaciers of Britain did, but melted gradually and continuously 
away. The distribution of the morainic material in sheets over the beds of the 
valleys seems to point to the destructive action of water escaping from the 
dissolving glaciers. The detritus thus formed has much the character of that 
loose aggregation of coarse shingle, earthy grit, and boulders, which is known 
in Switzerland as “ Alpine diluvium.” 
VII. Marine EROSION. 
The erosive action of the sea is admirably exhibited along the shores of 
the islands, and more especially upon those parts of the coast-line that face 
the open ocean. Everywhere the cliffs are undermined and eaten back, the 
rate of erosion varying according to the character of the rocks at the sea-level. 
The rapid recession of the cliffs is aided not only by the soft and decomposing 
character of so many of the basalt-rocks and tuffs, but also by the abundant 
jomting of the rocks; and springs and frost are evidently as actively 
engaged along the sea-cliffs as they are upon the steep slopes that overlook 
