PART-i.] Theohdd: Fltiislucene (Ifiposits of the Northern Vunjnti. 
The origin of this stream of ‘ erratics ’ is not far to seek. Ascending the 
valley above Byssia, the village of Shahwal is soon reached, standing on the 
further bank of a small stream. Down this stream has descended what those who 
please may call a ‘ fan,’ but Avhat I tei’m a ‘ moraine,’ disintegrated perhaps by 
subsequent stream action, but whicli consists of an enormous stream of granite 
blocks from the range behind, up, say, to 40 feet or moi’e in girth. This stream 
unites with a similar one which has descended the main valley, and is just an 
old lateral moraine. A little way below this a small streamlet of blocks has 
forced its way down a narrow valley,—I may almost say cascaded down it, —and 
joining the lai’ger latei'al moraine of Shahwal has helped to swell the stream of 
blocks all tending towards Byssia. The little valley alluded to is barely 60 yards 
broad with steep V sides, and yet several of the blocks piled all on top of each 
other arc from 40 to 70 feet in girth and completely jam the gorge. The fall of 
this gorge is steep, and I doubt if it ever contains a couple of feet of w.ater, and 
that must bo often broken up into foam, cascading over these rocky masses, 
the arrangement of which is shown in the outline section, fig. 2 (sec maj)). 
In biinging forward this section, however, I claim to be understood intelli¬ 
gently, and not to be confronted by inapplicable syllogisms of the well-known V 
order of argument of the antiglaeialists. Whoever, indeed, looks hero for ice 
marks on the rocks will bo disappointed ; nor can the obvious history of the gorge 
lead to any other anticipation. The gorge originally gave passage to a small 
glacier, as no other means I consider adequate to the transport of the rocky masses 
found in it. The base of the glacier no doubt was of the usual shape, and at a 
much higher level than the present bod of the V-shaped gorge. On the dis¬ 
appearance of the glacier, stream action commenced, and, aided by the scmir of 
the sharp granite detritus, soon effaced the old valley and cut down the jmosent 
V-shaped channel into which, pari i^assu, the ‘erratic’ blocks sub.sided. To 
imagine that such a piddling stream as could ever have foi^nd its way down here, 
brought down these huge blocks, is simply absurd. The ai’gument might be 
adduced for the large stream under Shahwal, but not here. 
The constitution, however, of the old river gravels disproves the idea that 
stream action which produced them had any influence in bringing down the 
‘erratics.’ The material of which the ‘ erratics’ consist, existed then, as now, 
close at hand in the adjoining ranges, but the power to move them was wanting, 
till the supervention of glacial conditions during a later period. It w^ould be 
mere repetition to describe similar cases all up the valley, the ‘ erratics ’ every¬ 
where reposing on the river gravels and being obviously roferrible to subsequent 
ice action and not to river transpoi’t. 
The consideration of the above facts affords a key, in my opinion, for recon¬ 
ciling the opposing views held, regarding the share played by ice in the formation 
of these recent deposits. The presence of huge ‘erratics’ strewn over the outer 
hills is appealed to by men like myself, supporters of glacial view's, as a proof of 
the reality of such agency, and is opposed by other observers on the gi-ound that 
such blocks are embedded in depo.sits of palpably fluviatile origin, but till now 
it has never been shown that both advocates are in a measure right, though in 
reality the erratic blocks merely rest on and are not really embedded, save 
