Editorial Commenf. 181 
proving tliat the f ragmen larv shells found in llie boulder-clay uf Cailh- 
ness were merely thi' comminuted relics of sliell-beds of the Nortli sea, 
dragged in upon tlie land by glacier ice. Belt seized upon this discov- 
ery and a])plied it in explanation of tlie origin of the high-level sand 
beds of North Wales (Moel Tryfaen), which he considered miglit well 
be ascribed to the action of water near the edge of a glacier. This view 
was strongly reinforced by Tiddeman and Goodcliild in their epocli- 
mal<ing papers on the glacial plienomena of North Lancashire anil tlie 
Vale of Eden. 
A fierce controversy ensued, centering chietiy around Helt"s papers. 
So great, however, was the weight of authority arrayed against their 
daring author, and .so strong was the tendency to measure all glacial ac- 
tion by tlie millimeter scale of the existing Alpine glaciers, that not all 
Belt's i)olemical skill nor his great field-experience (by a recent writer 
strangel}' minimized) could avail to secure him more than a half con- 
temptuous hearing. With the disappearance of this bold pioneer ceased 
the unequal contest which lie had initiated, and for a do/eii years or 
more hardly a voice was raised in favor of his views. 
Eventually Prof. Carvill Lewis, fresh from his work upon the great 
terminal moraine in Pennsylvania and the adjacent states, visited 
liritain with the intention of studying (he effects of an ice-sheet upon 
a countr3' similar in orographic form to Greenland. Ireland he con- 
ceived to furnish the nearest parallel, and he at once set to work and 
obtained, by a series of traverses, a good general idea of its glacial phe- 
nomena. In the course of this work he found what he considered to be 
evidence of a great terminal moraine marking tlie extreme limits of the 
ice-sheet. Finally he turned his attention to the sister island. His re- 
sults were announced to the British association at its meetings at Aber- 
deen, Birmingham, and Manchester, in 1885, 1886, and 1887. In these 
communications, albeit they were, as his editor says, "to some extent 
'trial papers,'"" he sounded no uncertain note ujion the vexed ([uestion 
(if till' "great submergence." At the same time he exiioundcd \ iesvs of 
great, nay, entire, novelty, regarding the demarcation by great terminal 
moraines <A the limits of a series of huge glaciers whose course^ he 
traced in England and Wales. He also recognized a system of extra- 
morainic lakes of great size, in which he thought the whole of the 
low-level driftof Enghind south of the Treiii ;ind the Hunil)er Id Imve 
been deposited. 
These oj)inions took English geologists completely by surprise. Xoi- 
withstanding that the winning gracionsness of Lewis" manni'r, his ejo- 
(luence. perfect mastery of detail, and wealtii of illustration. ma<le the 
exposition of his views one of the richest treats of the sectional discus- 
sions, he yet failed to entirely couNince his hearers. The late Dr. H. 
W. Crosskey, who was secretary of the Erratic Blocks Committee of the 
British Association, met him with fact pitted against fact: but it inusl 
be said that Lewis showed himself as adroit in defence as in attack. 
During the summer of 1888. Lewis returned to Englanil full of large 
schemes of work, but hringiim- with him the seeds of that inalaih to 
