530 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
Monday, Ibth January 1866. 
Sir DAVID BREWSTEE, President, in, the Chair. 
The following Communications were read : — 
I. Notes for a Comparison of the Glaciation of the West 
of Scotland with that of Arctic Norway. By Archibald 
Geikie, Esq., F.R.S. 
In the course of the detailed investigations which, during the 
past six or seven years, have been carried on by the officers of the 
Geological Survey into the history of the glacial period in Britain, 
the desire naturally arose to compare the phenomena of glaciation 
so familiar in this country with those of some other region where 
they might be linked on to the action of still existing glaciers. No 
other part of Europe offered so many facilities for such a comparison 
as were to be found in Scandinavia. It was accordingly planned 
by my colleague. Dr John Young, and myself, to visit Norway in the 
summer of 1863. Unforeseen circumstances delayed the journey, 
and ultimately deprived me of the companionship of my friend. Nor 
was it until June of last year (1865) that, accompanied by two of 
my associates in the Geological Survey, Mr W. Whitaker and Mr 
James Geikie, I reached the Arctic Circle. All the Norwegian 
observations recorded in this paper were made conjointly with 
these companions. 
The objects proposed to be accomplished in this excursion were — 
to compare, as minutely as time would allow, the ice-marks on the 
rocks of Scotland with those on the rocks of Scandinavia ; to ascer- 
tain, from personal exploration, how far the glaciation of the Nor- 
wegian coasts and fjords could be traced to the action of land ice 
or of floating bergs ; to trace, if possible, the connection between 
the ancient ice-work and the work of the living glaciers ; and, 
generally, to watch for any facts that might help to throw light 
upon the history of the glacial period in the British Isles. Having 
only a few weeks at our disposal, we were far from aiming at 
original discovery in Norwegian geology. The main features of 
