Ben Nevis. — Upham. 375 
[European and American Glacial Geology Compared. V.] 
BEN NEVIS, THE LAST STRONGHOLD 
OF THE BRITISH ICE-SHEET. 
By Waeren Upham, St. Paul, Minn. 
Sailing down loch Lochy and the river of the same name 
on the Caledonian Canal steamer "Gairlochy," in the beauti- 
fully clear and welcomely warm day of June 2gth, last sum- 
mer, we had southward a most inspiring view of Ben Xevis 
and its great companion mountains extending east to loch 
Treig. The upper part of these mountains then bore, as I 
counted, about fifty patches and more extensive tracts of 
snow, up to a third of a mile in length, lying on their mostlv 
shaded northern slopes and in their ravines, the remnants of 
the abundant and deeply drifted snows of the previous winter, 
reinforced in some degree" by the frequent later snowfalls of 
the spring and early summer. 
Here the Scottish Highlands attain their greatest altitude, 
the highest point of the somewhat plateau-like top of Ben 
Nevis being 4,406 feet above the sea. Until this honor was 
determined by exact leveling, it had been generally supposed 
to belong to Ben Macdhui* (or Muich Dhui), which has a 
similarly massive top, 4,296 feet above the sea, situated fiftv 
miles northeast of Ben Nevis. On both these mountains snow 
drifts usually linger until late in summer, and during many 
years are not wholly melted. Like the sunnner snow arch 
spanning the brooklet of its melting in Tuckerman's ravine. 
on Mt. Washington, in New Hampshire, these lingering snow- 
banks on the highest Scottish mountains show that moderate 
climatic changes might bring the beginning of snow and ice 
accumulation again upon these lands. Probably the early 
. Quaternary continental uplifts of North America and of the 
west side of the Old World, to the extent of 3,000 to 5,000 
feet above their jiresent altitude, which are known by former 
river valleys submerged to these depths by the sea on the 
eastern and western coasts of the United States and Canada, 
in the fjords of Norway, in the bay of liisca}', on the P(irtu- 
guesc coast, and on the west coast of Africa south of the 
equator, were suf^cient to cause the glaciation of the great 
*Anfflirized, in accordance with its pronounciation, this name would 
be spelled McDewey. 
