SIR HENRY H. HOWORTH, D.C.L., F.R.S., ON ICE OR WATER. 233 



Communication. 



The following communication was received from Mr. F. W. 

 Harmer, F.G.S. 



Dear Professor Hull : — 



I fear that our friend Sir H. H. Ho worth is so confirmed in 

 his own views that your well-meant effort to convert him has but 

 little chance of success. On the other hand, his views seem to be 

 making no progress ; in spite of the earnestness and forensic skill 

 of his writing I do not think he has made a single proselyte among 

 field geologists. 



A vast amount of information has been collected during the 

 forty years over which my interest in this subject extends, as to 

 the pleistocene deposits of England, and the erratic boulders they 

 contain. Dealing with the subject as a whole, it is found that 

 these drifts arrange themselves in clearly defined groups, different 

 alike in origin and distribution. Now it is hardly fair for Sir 

 Henry to imply that those who think that the most satisfactory 

 explanation of this distribution is that it is due to the action of 

 ice, are like men half asleep, under the influence of some absurd 

 and senseless " nightmare," unless he has himself something better 

 to offer. To suggest that these deposits may be due to a great 

 flood is a guess, pure and simple. Before such a view can be 

 entertained, much less discussed, it is necessary to show, in detail, 

 that it can be made reasonably to accord with the observed facts, 

 and with all of them. 



For some years I have been endeavouring to construct an erratic 

 map of England and Wales, and hope shortly to publish it. I 

 believe it will be found that the land- ice hypothesis gives, not only 

 a possible, but the only satisfactory explanation of the distribution 

 of the drift. I shall respectfully challenge Sir Henry to show that 

 it can be as well explained on his hypothesis. 



It would be easy to give instances as to the movement of erratic 

 blocks having a similar bearing on the question as the striations 

 mentioned in your paper. " There is, for example, the well-known 

 case of the Shap granite boulders, which occur along a trail starting 

 from the mountain region of AYestmoreland. Crossing the Valley of 

 the Eden, the bottom of which is between 500 feet and 600 feet only 



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