Man and the Glacial PeriodWright, G. Frederick (George Frederick)
History
Man and the Glacial Period
Wright, G. Frederick (George Frederick)
Glacial epoch; Prehistoric peoples
"_Wales._--The phenomena of South Wales are comparatively simple. Great
glaciers travelled due southward from the lofty Brecknock Beacons,
and left the characteristic _moutonnée_ appearance upon the rocky bed
over which they moved. The boulder-transport is in entire agreement
with the other indications, and there are no shells in the drift. The
facts awaiting explanation are the occurrence in the boulder-clays of
Glamorganshire, at altitudes up to four hundred feet, of flints, and of
igneous rocks somewhat resembling those of the Archæan series of the
Wrekin. At Clun, in Shropshire, a train of erratics (see map) has been
traced back to its source to the westward. On the west coast, in Cardigan
Bay, the boulders are all such as might have been derived from the
interior of Wales. At St. David's Peninsula, Pembrokeshire, striæ occur
coming in from the northwest, and, taken with the discovery of boulders
of northern rocks, may point to a southward extension of a great glacier
produced by confluent sheets that choked the Irish Sea. Information
is very scanty regarding large areas in mid-Wales, but such as can be
gathered seems to point to ice-shedding having taken place from a north
and south parting line. In North Wales, much admirable work has been done
which clearly indicates the neighbourhood of Great Arenig (Arenig Mawr)
as the radiant point for a great dispersal of blocks of volcanic rock of
a characteristic Welsh type.
"_Ireland._--A brief reference must be made to Ireland, as the ice which
took origin there played an important part in bringing about some strange
effects in English glaciation, which would be inexplicable without a
recognition of the causes in operation across the Irish Sea. Ireland
is a great basin, surrounded by an almost continuous girdle of hills.
The rainfall is excessive, and the snow-fall was probably more than
proportionately great; therefore we might expect that an ice-sheet of
very large dimensions would result from this combination of favouring
conditions. The Irish ice-sheet appears to have moved outward from about
the centre of the island, but the main flow was probably concentrated
through the gaps in the encircling mountains.
"_Galloway._--The great range of granite mountains in the southwestern
corner of Scotland seems to have given origin to an immense mass of ice
which moved in the main to the southward, and there are good grounds
for the belief that the whole ice-drainage of the area, even that which
gathered on the northern side of the water-shed, ultimately found its
way into the Irish Sea basin and came down coastwise and across the low
grounds of the Rinns of Galloway, being pushed down by the press of
Highland ice which entered the Firth of Clyde. It is a noteworthy fact
that marine shells occur in the drift in the course taken by the ice
coming on to the extremity of Galloway from the Clyde.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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