When the ice-sheet was at its thickest, the Cheviots were completely
covered, nevertheless they served to divide the ice-flow between
Scotland and England, although here and there one finds that the ice
passed over some of the lower summits, carrying with it boulders and
stones. This is by no means an uncommon circumstance in Scotland and
other glaciated countries. Thus we note that Highland boulders have
been brought into the vale of the Tweed across the Lammermuirs; and in
the same way boulders from the heights overlooking Eskdale have been
carried over some of the lower hill-tops into the vale of the Teviot.
In like manner the Swedish ice occasionally overflowed the lower
mountain-tops of the dividing ridge or watershed into Norway.
What wonder now that the Cheviot area should exhibit so many flowing
outlines, that the hills should be so smoothed and rounded and fluted,
that the low-grounds should be cumbered with such heaps of clay and
striated stones? Long before the great glaciers appeared, the rocks
were weathered and worn by the action of the usual atmospheric forces,
and each had assumed its own peculiar outline; but how greatly has
this been modified by the grinding action of the ice-sheet! To what
an extent have projecting rocks been rubbed, and how great is the
destruction that has befallen the loose accumulations of river gravel,
sand, and clay that gathered in the valleys before the advent of the
Ice Age! All that now remains of these are a few patches preserved here
and their underneath the till. The Cheviots can tell us nothing of the
kinds of plants and animals that clothed and peopled the country in
pre-glacial times. All we learn is that streams and rivers flowed as
they flow now, and that by-and-by everything was changed, and the land
disappeared underneath a vast covering of snow and ice.
In my concluding paper I will show how this ice period passed away, and
how the present condition of things succeeded.
V.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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