LAMPLUGH : SHELLY MORAINE OF THE SEFSTROM GLACIER. 229 
low sea-cliffs at both ends of the island where it had almost 
exactly the appearance of a boulder-clay of the Yorkshire or 
Lancashire coast. The shells were everj^where abundant and 
conspicuous on the surface ; the}^ were present also in all the 
sections that I examined, but I thought that the}' were more 
plentiful at the top than in the deeper clay— perhaps, however, 
only because they were less conspicuous when seen edgewise and 
unwashed. 
The fortunate interposition of this bit of ground rising from 
the sea in the path of the advancing glacier has indeed presented 
an opportunity which is perhaps unique under existing conditions. 
The glacier came to land again on a low shehing coast after 
traversing the sea-bottom ; and I know of no other present 
example of this phenomenon, though we have reason to believe 
that it was a common condition during the Pleistocene glaciation. 
To me, one of the most impressive features of the moraine was 
its abrupt termination upon the bare ground of the island (see 
PI. XXVIII. and Figs. 3 and 4). 
The original low shelf of gently inclined rock and old beach- 
shingle forming Cora Island probably noA\here rises to more 
than 30 or 40 feet above present sea-level, and most of it is 
considerably lo\\er than this. It supports the usual scanty 
tundra-growth of the Spitsbergen lowlands, this growth being 
continuous close up to the red clay of the moraine, and there 
stopping abruptly. From Mr. Trevor-Battye s description and 
from the height of the unmelted remnant of ice, it is clear that 
the glacier shot forward over the island-shelf ^dth a dominating 
front rising high above the land-level. Part of its height \\ as due 
to the intercalated foundation of moraine that it had dragged 
along ; and this foundation must have extended close up to the 
front of the glacier, though apjoarently it was hidden by higher 
layers of clean ice at the time of Mr. Trevor-Battye's visit. 
The great moraine now marks out yery closely the limits 
reached by the ice. As shown in PI, XXVIIL, the ridges of red 
clay rise up boldly above all the smooth low tundra that lay bej^ond 
reach of the invader ; and though the transported mass sinks lower 
towards its outer margin, it ended wherever I saw it in a very 
definite bank several feet in height, from which one could step 
in a few strides on to the undisturbed tundra. 
