Man and the Glacial PeriodWright, G. Frederick (George Frederick)
History
Man and the Glacial Period
Wright, G. Frederick (George Frederick)
Glacial epoch; Prehistoric peoples
In other portions of central and southern Europe the mountains were too
low to furnish important centres for glacial movements. Still, to a
limited extent, the signs of ancient glaciers are seen in the mountains
of the Black Forest, in the Harz and Erzgebirge, and in the Carpathians
on the east and among the Apennines on the south. In Spain, also, there
were limited ice-fields on the higher portions of the Sierra Nevada
and in the mountains of Estremadura, and perhaps in some other places.
In France, small glaciers were to be found in the higher portions
of the Auvergne, of the Morvan, of the Vosges, and of the Cevennes;
while, from the Pyrenees, glaciers extended northward throughout nearly
their whole extent. The ice-stream descending from the central mass of
Maladetta through the upper valley of the Garonne, was joined by several
tributaries, and attained a length of about forty-five miles.
_The British Isles._
During the climax of the Glacial period the Hebrides to the north of
Scotland were covered with ice to a depth of 1,600 feet. How far westward
of this it moved out to the sea, it is of course impossible to tell. But
in the channels between the Hebrides and Scotland it is evident that
the water was completely expelled by the ice, and that, from a height
of 1,600 feet above the Hebrides to the northern shores of Scotland,
there was a continuous ice-field sloping southward at the rate of about
twenty-five feet a mile.
Scotland itself was completely enveloped in glacial ice. Prevented by
the Scandinavian Glacier from moving eastward, the Scotch movement was
compelled to be westward and southward. On the southwest the ice-stream
reached the shores of Ireland, and became confluent with the glaciers
that enveloped that island, completely filling the Irish Sea.
There are so many controverted points respecting the glacial geology of
England, and they have such an important bearing upon the main question
of this volume, that a pretty full discussion of them will be necessary.
I have recently been over enough of the ground myself to become satisfied
of the general correctness of the views entertained by my late colleague,
the lamented Professor Henry Carvill Lewis, whose death in 1888 took
place before the publication of his most mature conclusions. But the
lines of investigation to which he gave so powerful an impulse have since
been followed out by an active body of scientific observers. To give the
statement of facts greater precision and authority, I have committed
the preparation of it to the Secretary of the Northwest of England
Boulder Committee, Percy F. Kendall, F. G. S., Lecturer on Geology at
the Yorkshire College, Leeds, and at the Stockport Technical School,
England.[BM]
[Footnote BM: Mr. Kendall's contribution extends to page 181.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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