228 The Great Ice Age and Origin of the “Till” [April, 
It is only after contemplating thoughtfully the present 
form of the granitic and metamorphic hills of Scandinavia, — 
hills that are always angular when subjected only to subaerial 
weathering, — that one can form an adequate conception of 
the magnitude of this shallowing deposit. The rounding, 
shaving, grinding, planing, and universal abrasion everywhere 
displayed appear to me to justify the conclusion that if the 
sea were now raised to the level of the terraces, i.e., 600 feet 
higher than at present, the mass of matter abraded from the 
original Scandinavian mountains, and lying under the sea, 
would exceed the whole mass of mountain left standing above it. 
The first question suggested by reading Mr. Geikie’s 
book was whether the terraces are wholly or partially 
formed of till, and more especially whether their lower por- 
tions are thus composed. This, as already stated, was 
easily answered by the almost unanimous reply of all the 
many Norwegian valleys I traversed. Any tourist may verify 
this. The next question was whether this same till extends 
below the sea. This was not so easily answered by the means 
at my disposal, as I travelled hastily round the coast from 
Stavanger via the North Cape to the frontier of Russian 
Lapland in ordinary passenger steam packets, which made 
their stoppages to suit other requirements than mine. Still 
I was able to land at many stations, and found that wherever 
there was a gently sloping strand at the mouth of an estuary, 
or of a valley whose river had already deposited its suspended 
matter (a common case hereabouts, where so many rivers 
terminate in long estuaries or open out into bag-shaped lakes 
near the coast), and where the bottom had not been modified 
by secondary glaciation, that the receding tide displayed a sea 
bottom of till, covered with a thin stratum of loose stones 
and shells. In some cases the till was so bare that it ap- 
peared like a stiff mud deposited but yesterday. 
At Bodo, an ardtic coast station on the north side of the 
mouth of the Salten fjord (lat. 67° 20 ), where the packets 
make a long halt, is a very characteristic example of this ; 
a deposit of very tough till forming an extensive plain just 
on the sea level. The tide rises over this, and the waves 
break upon it, forming a sort of beach by washing away some 
of the finer material, and leaving the stones behind. The 
ground being so nearly level, the reach of the tide is very 
great, and thus a large area is exposed at low tide. Beyond 
the limit of high tide is an extensive inland plain covered 
with coarse grass and weeds growing diredtly upon the 
surface of the original flat pavement of till. 
There is no river at Bodo ; the sea is clear, leaves no ap- 
