1877 *] The Great Ice Age and Origin of the “ Tilly 
23 1 
hook with a flat shank attached to a heavy leaden plummet. 
The line was sunk till the lead touched the bottom, a few 
jerks were given, and then a tug was felt : the line hauled 
in with a cod-fish or hallibut hooked, not inside the mouth, 
but externally by the gill-plates, the back, the tail, or other- 
wise. The mere jerking of a hook near the bottom was 
sufficient to bring it in contact with some of the population. 
There is a very prolific bank lying between the North Cape 
and Nordkyn, where the Porsanger and Laxe fjord unite their 
openings. Here we were able, with only three lines, to cover 
the fore-deck of the packet with struggling victims in the 
course of short halts of fifteen to thirty minutes. Not 
having any sounding apparatus by which to fairly test the 
nature of the sea-bottom in these places, I cannot offer any 
diredt proof that it was composed of till. By dropping the 
lead I could feel it sufficiently to be certain that it was not 
rock in any case, but a soft deposit, and the marks upon the 
bottom of the lead, so far as they went, afforded evidence in 
favour of its clayey character. A further investigation of 
this would be very interesting.* 
But the most striking — I may say astounding — evidence 
of the fertility of these banks, one which appeals most 
powerfully to the senses, is the marvellous colony of sea- 
birds at Sverholtklubben, the headland between the two last- 
named fjords. I dare not estimate the numbers that rose 
from the rocks and darkened the sky when we blowed the 
steam-whistle in passing. I doubt whether there is any 
other spot in the world where an equal amount of animal life 
is permanently concentrated. All these feed on fish* and an 
examination of the map will show why — in accordance with 
the above speculations — they should have chosen Sverholt- 
klubben as the best fishing ground on the arhtic face of 
Europe. 
I am fully conscious of the main difficulty that stands in 
the way of my explanation of the formation of the till, viz., 
that of finding sufficient water to float the ice, and should 
have given it up had I accepted Mr. Geikie’s estimate of the 
thickness of the great ice sheet of the great ice age. 
He says (page 186) that “The ice which covered the low 
grounds of Scotland during the early cold stages of the glacial 
epoch was certainly more than 2000 feet in thickness, and it 
must have been even deeper than this between the mainland 
and the Outer Hebrides. To cause such a mass to float, the 
* For further particulars concerning this kind of fishing see “ Through Nor- 
way with Ladies,” which will be ready at about the same time as this 
article appears. 
