22 



PROFESSOR P. F. KENDALL AND MR E. B. BAILEY 



illustrate the final stages which may be reached in a development originating in so small 

 a thing as the high-level channel leading across the col out of the Sting Bank valley. 



In the cases so far considered there is no direct evidence * that the local glaciers 

 of the higher valleys came into being during the retreat of the main ice sheet. The 

 excellent preservation of the stream channels described proves indeed that they were 

 produced at a later date than the final overwhelming of the hills by foreign ice, while 

 the oscillatory nature of the withdrawal of the latter itself suggests that climatic 

 conditions were favourable, at the time of the retreat, for a temporary retention of small 

 glaciers in the valleys of the hill country. Fortunately, however, this important point 



^ 





=: 



J 



glaciers glacial lames glac/al drainage chanhels hill summits watersheds scale of miles 



Fig. 4. 



can be settled definitely by a consideration of the complicated series of events recorded 

 in connection with the local glacier of the Cowie Burn valley (figs. 4 and 4a). 



The critical sections occur along the ridge which runs northwards from Nine Cairn 

 Edge and forms the western boundary of the Cowie Burn valley. Attention will be 

 restricted to the system of channels lettered in the text map. Of these only the 

 example marked A B C is significant in regard to the question of local glaciation, but it 

 would be unsatisfactory to attempt to deal with it without explaining the origin of 

 the others. 



The first thing that strikes the observer in visiting this ridge is that the channels of 

 this system have delivered water (they are all now perfectly dry) both in an easterly and 



* We prefer, for the present, not to regard the absence of the ordinary marginal phenomena from the region of 

 local glaciation as direct evidence on this question, to avoid reasoning in a circle. 



