Again, I would remark that Mr. Mackintosh has ignored all the evidence
which has been brought forward from time to time to demonstrate
the sub-glacial origin of boulder-clay, and to prove the utter
insufficiency of floating-ice to account for the phenomena. And he
adduces no new facts in support of the now discredited iceberg theory,
unless it be his statement that _flat_ striated rock-surfaces (such
as those near Birkenhead) have been caused by floating-ice--the
dome-shaped _roches moutonnées_ being, on the other hand the work
of land-ice. As a matter of personal observation, I can assure Mr.
Mackintosh that _flat_ striated surfaces are by no means uncommonly
associated in one and the same region with _roches moutonnées_.
What are _roches moutonnées_ but the rounded relics of what were
formerly rough uneven tors, projecting bosses, and prominent rocks?
The general tendency of glacial action is to reduce the asperities of
a land-surface; hence projecting points are rounded off, while flat
surfaces are simply, as a rule, planed smoother. Mr. Mackintosh might
traverse acres of such smoothed rock-surfaces in regions where the
strata are comparatively horizontal--for example, in the case of the
basaltic plateaux of the Faröes and of Iceland, which have certainly
been glaciated by land-ice. Similar flat glaciated surfaces are met
with again and again both in the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland,
occupying positions and associated with _roches moutonnées_ and till
of such a character as to prove beyond any doubt that they no less
certainly are the result of the action of land-ice. But it is needless
to discuss the probability or possibility of glaciation of any kind
being due to floating-ice. We know that glaciers can and do polish and
striate rock-surfaces; no one, however, can say the same of icebergs:
and until some one can prove to us that icebergs have performed this
feat, or can furnish us with well-considered reasons for believing
them to be capable of it, glacialists will continue sceptical.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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