224 SIR HEXRY H. flOWOETH, D.C.L., F.E.S., ON ICE OR WATER. 



physical features. The deepening of the central part of the 

 fiords I attributed to the erosion of the glaciers which occupied 

 the valleys during the Ice Age, and in this view I am supported 

 by Professor Spencer and, I believe, Dr. I^ansen. An additional 

 cause of the shallowing towards the outlet is the accumulation 

 of vast deposits of moraine matter, thrown down by the 

 vanished glaciers of this period. 



Xow, Sir Henry Howorth is very unwilling to credit glacier 

 ice with any erosive power over its floor ; but he gives his case 

 away when (dealing with this subject) he says : 



" To be a little more concrete, I would urge that ice, being a 

 viscous body, when armed with suitable tools in the shape of 

 stones, can polish and in some measure erode, but cannot, except 

 under very exceptional and peculiar conditions, and in very 

 limited areas, excavate and dig ! " 



The author seems aware that in dealing with the erosive 

 power of ice " armed with tools," he is treading on ver}' slippery 

 ground, and if glacier ice thus equipped, and of enormous thick- 

 ness (in the case of the Sogne Fjord probably 5,000 feet) can 

 " in some measure erode," why not during long ages can it not 

 grind a hollow wdiere it is most thick and presses on its floor 

 with greatest weight, namely, in the centre of its coui se towards 

 the sea ? 



It was for this reason that Eamsay suggested that to glacier 

 ice was due the deepening of the great lakes (if not their 

 actual and initial formation) on both sides of the Alps, and to 

 this cause alone can the deepeniug of the Scandinavian fiords 

 in the central portion of their course be referred. 



Sir H. Howorth denies that glacier ice is capable of passing 

 over hills or elevated ground l}'ing in its path, or "to travel 

 over the enormous stretches of more or less level country " 

 (Preface, p. 37). This statement I can meet with several 

 examples taken from each of the three countries constituting 

 the United Kingdom, and they are derived from personal 

 observation. 



First. A fine glacier formerly descended the Langdale 

 Valley in "Westmoreland, having its source in the snowfield 

 which occupied the Central Mountain heights of the Lake 

 District. At its lower end occurs a ridge, a few hundred feet 

 in height, thrown athwart the valley itself, which might well 

 have been suppf)sc(l to form an effectual barrier to the move- 

 ment of the glacier— not at all ! The striatious, which are 

 perfectly distinct, and parallel to the centre of the valley, are 

 seen to ascend and pass over the obstruction to the opposite 



