the Faröe Islands, could possibly have been fed by the snow-fields of
mountain-heights only. The precipitation and accumulation of snow, and
the formation of _névé_ and glacier-ice, must have taken place over
enormous regions in what are now the temperate latitudes of Europe.
It is obvious that the direction of ice-flow in the basin of the Irish
Sea opposite the south of Scotland and the west of England, while
preserving a general southerly trend, would vary at different periods.
Before the _mer de glace_ in that basin had attained its climax there
must have been a time when the ice, streaming outwards from the
high-grounds of Cumberland, was enabled to push its way far westward
out into the basin of the Irish Sea. At that time it was still able
to hold its own against the pressure exerted by the Scottish ice. But
as the general _mer de glace_ increased in thickness, the course of
the Cumberland ice would be diverted ever further and further to the
south-east, until, eventually, the Scottish ice came to hug the coast
of Cumberland, and to overflow Lancashire in its progress towards the
south-east. So gorged with ice did the basin of the Irish Sea become,
that a portion of the Scottish ice was forced over the plain of
Cumberland and up the valley of the Eden, where it coalesced with the
ice coming north from the Shap district, and thereafter flowed in an
easterly direction to join the great _mer de glace_ of the North Sea
basin.
Thus the intercrossings of the Criffel and Cumberland erratics
described by Mr. Mackintosh receive a ready explanation by the land-ice
theory. Nor do the intercrossings of the Welsh erratics with those
derived from Scotland and Cumberland offer any difficulty. The ice
coming from the Welsh mountains would naturally be deflected towards
south-east by the _mer de glace_ that streamed in that direction, and
might quite well have carried its characteristic boulders as far as
Birmingham before the general _mer de glace_ had attained its greatest
dimensions. But when that period of maximum glaciation arrived, the
Welsh boulders would be unable to travel so far towards the east, and
the Scottish and Cumberland boulders would then cross the path formerly
followed by the felstone erratics from Great Arenig.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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