in Scotland and Paris of England, 231 



observers were misled by the novel features of our superfi- 

 cial formations, and in many instances mistook for results 

 of glacial action what were in reality alluvial accumulation s 3 

 most of them being those ancient deltas of mountain streams 

 which are so often found where narrow side glens join the 

 principal valleys. 



Amongst the contemporary observations of Sir Charles 

 Lyell, two objects are cited, which answer so entirely to the 

 character of ancient terminal moraines that I cannot doubt 

 their being of that character. They occur in the small ele- 

 vated valleys on the skirts of the Grampians, which contain 

 the Lochs Whorral and Brandy. " Loch Brandy," says Sir 

 Charles, " is surrounded on three sides by lofty precipices of 

 gneiss, while on the south it is bounded only by an enormous 

 accumulation of sand, mud, and fragments of rocks, evidently 

 derived from the cliffs which overhang the lake on the east, 

 north, and west." We only can account for an accumula- 

 tion of such a kind in such a position by supposing the action 

 of a small local glacier. The two lochs are 1500 feet above 

 the sea. Professor Ramsay has lately discovered lakes in 

 North Wales formed by dams which he believes to be ancient 

 moraines ; and Mr Darwin has described similar objects as 

 occurring in South America. 



Professor J. D. Forbes' s Observations on the Cuchullin Hills, 

 published in 1845, included descriptions of the general glacial 

 phenomena of that district, which are certainly of a most 

 striking character, the whole central valley, in which Loch 

 Coruisk lies, being shaven bare and striated, with a vast 

 number of blocks scattered over the surface, many of them 

 in situations where ice alone could have placed them. Yet 

 it is remarkable that no true moraine exists in this glen ; 

 that is to say, no train or ridge of the rough detrital matter 

 marking the sides or skirts of an ancient glacier. Professor 

 Forbes describes one true and unmistakeable moraine as 

 forming " an elongated semi-oval'' round the mouth of a deep 

 corry on the outside (westward) of the Cuchullin group. He 

 also adverts, in less confident terms, to something of the 

 same kind at the mouth of the Corry-na-briech, — a short ab- 

 rupt valley, likewise looking outwards to the north-west, — . 



