Resting upon the surface of the shell-beds at Ness and Garabost we
find an upper or overlying accumulation of sub-glacial débris or till.
At Ness this upper till closely resembles, in general appearance, the
lower deposit that rests directly upon the rocks. It is a pell-mell
accumulation of silty clay, crammed with glaciated stones, amongst
which are many fragments of red sandstone and some extra-Hebridean
rocks, and interspersed through it occur also broken fragments of
sea-shells. The marine deposits lying below are usually much confused
and contorted, and here and there they are even violently commingled
with the upper till. They show, generally, a most irregular surface
under that accumulation, and are evidently only the wreck of what they
must at one time have been. Now the presence of this upper till proves
beyond doubt that the intense arctic conditions of climate once more
supervened. A big ice-sheet again filled up the basin of the Minch and
flowed over the Long Island--its under-tow creeping along the inner
margin of the lofty rock-barrier as before, and eventually stealing
over the low-ground at the Butt, where its bottom-moraine or till was
dragged over the marine deposits, and confusedly commingled with them.
The upper strata of the ice that streamed across the islands renewed
the work of abrasion, and succeeded in scraping away all traces of the
late occupation by the sea. If any such now exist they must lie buried
under the till that cloaks the low-ground on the western margins of
the islands. Hence it is that we find not a vestige of shelly beds in
any part of the Long Island which was exposed to the full brunt of
the ice-flow. At Garabost they have been ploughed through in the most
wonderful manner, and only little patches remain. At Ness, however,
they are more continuous. This is owing to the circumstance that the
ground in that neighbourhood is low-lying and offered no obstacle
to the passage of the ice out to sea. Hence the shell-beds were not
subjected to such excessive erosion as overtook them along the whole
eastern border of the Long Island.
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