pressure, and may be studied in the boulder-clay of Switzerland and
Italy, and in the till not only of the Lowlands but of the Highlands
of Scotland. Occasionally the "lines" are so close that the clay
sometimes presents the appearance of rude and often wavy and irregular
lamination--a section of such a boulder-clay reminding one sometimes
of that of a gnarled gneiss or crumpled schist. And these appearances
may be noted in boulder-clays which occupy positions that preclude
the possibility of their being marine--as in certain valleys of the
Highlands, such as Strathbraan, and in the neighbourhood of Como, in
Italy. This "lamination" is merely indicative of the intense pressure
to which the till was subjected during its gradual accumulation under
the ice. It is assuredly not the result of aqueous action. Aqueous
lamination is due to sifting and winnowing--the coarser or heavier
and finer or lighter particles being separated in obedience to their
different specific gravity, and arranged in layers of more or less
regularity according to circumstances. There is nothing of this kind of
arrangement, however, in the so-called stratified boulder-clay. If the
clay of an individual lamina be washed and carefully sifted, it will be
found to be composed of grains of all shapes, sizes, and weights, down
to the finest and most impalpable flour. It is impossible to believe
that such a heterogeneous assemblage of grains could have been dropt
into water without the particles being separated and sifted in their
progress to the bottom. Of course, every one knows that patches and
beds of laminated clay and sand of veritable aqueous origin occur now
and again in boulder-clay. I suppose there is no boulder-clay without
them. I have seen them in the till of Italy and Switzerland, where
they show precisely the same features as the similar laminated clays in
the till of our own islands. But these included patches and beds point
merely to the action of sub-glacial waters, such as we know circulate
under the glaciers of the Alps, of Norway, and of Greenland.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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