Evolution (Biology); Glacial epoch; Human beings -- Origin; Human evolution
both above and below them, and in the overlying unstratified drift were
some boulders of granite which must have come from distances of 60 miles
at the least.*
(* Smith of Jordanhill, "Quarterly Journal of the Geological
Society" volume 6 1850 page 387.)
The presence of Tellina calcarea, and several other northern shells,
implies a climate colder than that of the present Scottish seas. In the
north of Scotland, marine shells have been found in deposits of the same
age in Caithness and in Aberdeenshire at heights of 250 feet, and on the
shores of the Moray Firth, as at Gamrie in Banff, at an elevation of 350
feet; and the stratified sands and beds of pebbles which belong to the
same formation ascend still higher--to heights of 500 feet at least.*
(* Prestwich, "Proceedings of the Geological Society" volume
2 page 545; Jamieson, "Quarterly Journal of the Geological
Society" volume 16 1860.)
At much greater heights, stratified masses of drift occur in which
hitherto no organic remains, whether of marine or freshwater animals,
have ever been found. It is still an undecided question whether the
origin of all such deposits in the Grampians can be explained without
the intervention of the sea. One of the most conspicuous examples has
been described by Mr. Jamieson as resting on the flank of a hill called
Meal Uaine, in Perthshire, on the east side of the valley of the Tummel,
just below Killiecrankie. It consists of perfectly horizontal strata,
the lowest portion of them 300 feet above the river and 600 feet above
the sea. From this elevation to an altitude of nearly 1200 feet the
same series of strata is traceable, continuously, up the slope of the
mountain, and some patches are seen here and there even as high as 1550
feet above the sea. They are made up in great part of finely laminated
silt, alternating with coarser materials, through which stones from 4 to
5 feet in length are scattered. These large boulders, and some smaller
ones, are polished on one or more sides, and marked with glacial striae.
The subjacent rocks, also, of gneiss, mica slate, and quartz, are
everywhere grooved and polished as if by the passage of a glacier.*
(* Jamieson, "Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society"
volume 16 1860 page 360.)
At one spot a vertical thickness of 130 feet of this series of strata is
exposed to view by a mountain torrent, and in all more than 2000 layers
of clay, sand, and gravel were counted, the whole evidently accumulated
under water. Some beds consist of an impalpable mud, like putty,
apparently derived from the grinding down of felspar, and resembling the
mud produced by the grinding action of modern glaciers.
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