1877 0 The Great Ice Age and Origin of the “ Till.” 229 
preciable deposit, and the degree of denudation of the clayey 
matrix of the till is very much smaller than might be ex- 
pected. The limits of high water is plainly shown by a 
beach of shells and stones, but at low tide the ground over 
which the sea has receded is a bare and scarcely modified 
surface of till. I have observed the same at low water at 
many other ArCtic stations. In the Tromso sund there are 
shallows at some distance from the shore which are just 
covered with water at low tide. I landed and waded on 
these, and found the bottom to consist of till covered with a 
thin layer of shells, odd fragments of earthenware, and 
other rubbish thrown overboard from vessels. It is evident 
that breakers of considerable magnitude are necessary for the 
loosening of this compact deposit, that it is very slightly, if 
at all, affected by the mere flow of running water. 
I specify these instances as characteristic and easy of 
verification, as the packets all stop at these stations, but a 
yachtsman sailing at leisure amidst the glorious coast sce- 
nery of the ArCtic Ocean might multiply such observations 
a hundred fold by stopping wherever such strands are indi- 
cated in passing. Of these I saw a multitude in places where 
I was unable to go ashore and examine them. 
A further question in this direction suggested itself on the 
spot, viz., What is the nature of the “ banks ” which consti- 
tute the fishing grounds of Norway, Iceland, Newfoundland, 
&c. They are submarine plains unquestionably — they must 
have a high degree of fertility in order to supply food for the 
hundreds of millions of voracious cod-fish, coal-fish, haddocks, 
hallibut, &c., that people them. These large fishes all feed 
on the bottom , their chief food being mollusca and Crustacea, 
which must find, either direCtly or indirectly, some pasture 
of vegetable origin. The banks are, in faCt, great meadows 
or feeding grounds for the lower animals which support the 
higher. 
From the Lofoten bank alone 20 millions of cod-fish are 
taken annually, besides those devoured by the vast multitude 
of sea birds. Now this bank is situated precisely where, 
according to the above-stated view of the origin of the till, 
there should be a huge deposit. It occupies the Vest fjord, 
i.e., the opening between the mainland and the Lofoden 
Islands, extending from Moskenes, to Lodingen on Hindo, 
just where the culminating masses of the Kjolen Mountains 
must have poured their greatest glaciers into the sea by a 
westward course, and these glaciers must have been met by 
another stream pouring from the north, formed by the gla- 
ciers of Hindo, Senjeno, and both must have coalesced 
