of Edinburgh, Session 1878 - 79 . 
197 
a large surface of flat sandstone rock on the sea-beach, containing 
striae and furrows, of which he gives a diagram, and which he was 
satisfied had been formed by hard stones fixed on the bottom of 
floating ice, or pushed before it. At the place in question, the tide 
rises from 40 to 50 feet, and flows at the rate of ten miles an hour, 
so that the work done when the sea covered the rock, became visible 
when the tide was out. — (“ Travels in North America,” by Sir 
Charles Lyell, vol. ii. page 174.) 
In Mr Campbell’s “ Short American Tramp,” several similar cases 
on the shores of Labrador, of rocks not only ground and smoothed, 
but also striated, are given (pages 53, 94, and 107). He mentions 
also the following fact : — “ The effect of heavy ice on the water-line 
is here conspicuous. A berg about 40 feet out of water was aground 
at the back of one steep island. It seemed to have taken the form 
of the rocks, against which it was ground by a heavy swell. The 
ice was actually rubbing the stone for that height above water , and 
for 400 feet under it. It was moved by all the power of an Atlantic 
wave. Along the whole coast, for a height of from 40 to 50 feet , 
an irregular zone of rock is thus scoured bright and smooth .” — 
(Page 93.) 
I have thought it right to quote these authorities, because of the 
strong opinion recently expressed, in more than one influential 
quarter, against the possibility of rocks being ground, smoothed, 
and striated by floating ice. 
One thing is clear, that in the Hebrides the sea must have stood 
at a higher level at former periods, and that the sea had an Arctic 
temperature. But on the mainland of Scotland, there are tracts of 
what appear to be sea-beds of gravel, sand, and clay, up to a height 
of at least 2000 feet. Reference may be made to Arctic shells on 
Snowdon, and near Macclesfield, at nearly the same level, in beds 
of clay and gravel. Along with these facts, it must be remembered 
that boulders have been found on our Highland hills, even up to 
2000 feet, and in some cases upon what are unquestionable sub- 
marine deposits. In this respect Scotland presents nothing different 
from what exists elsewhere. In Norway, Sweden, and North 
America, there are in like manner boulders lying on what are now 
admitted to be submarine deposits at very high levels. To this 
fact Mr Croll, in his highly speculative volume called “Climate and 
