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IV.—The Glaciation of the Shetland Isles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

B. N. Peach  and
John Horne
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Extract

In the May Number of the GeologicalMagazine, Mr. Milne Home expresses anew his doubts about our conclusions on the glaciation of Shetland, laying special emphasis on the discordance between the statements of Mr. C. W. Peach and ourselves. He also cites Dr. Hibbert and Mr. Russell as to the position of certain boulders which, he considers, are at variance with our conclusions. In his recent criticisms, Mr. Milne Home still displays a curious misapprehension of many of the facts bearing on this question; besides he has committed a serious error in making allowance for the magnetic variation, on the strength of which he tries to establish a discordance between the trend of the ice-markings as given by Mr. C. W. Peach and ourselves, in Unst and the Outskerries of Whalsay.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 8 , Issue 8 , August 1881 , pp. 364 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1881

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References

page 365 note 1 The true direction was 24° 35′, which is, roughly speaking, 24½°. This applies to the middle of the group. Northwards from this there was a slight increase and southwards a decrease in a regular ratio.

page 365 note 2 See Geol.Mag. 1865, p. 343.

page 366 note 1 As there was a strong local deflection of the compass amounting to about 25° at this point, the proper direction of these striations was obtained from a party of the Ordnance Survey, who were at work near the spot at the time they were noted.

page 367 note 1 Zeitschrift der Deutschen geologischen Gesellsckaft, Jahrgang 1879, p. 716.

page 367 note 2 Geol. Mag. Feb. 1881, p. 67.

page 368 note 1 Geol. Mag. 1865, p. 342.

page 370 note 1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxvi. p. 648Google Scholar.

page 370 note 2 Mr. Milne Home seems to consider the separate movements of the upper and lower portions of the ice-sheet as indicated by the striæ near Fethaland Point, an “extraordinary physical phenomenon.” Evidence of a similar double movement has been observed by Professor Ramsay among the Yorkshire hills, and Professor Hull has described another example in connexion with the Lough Erne Valley. See “Physical Geology and Geography of Ireland,” by Prof. Hull, p. 239; also see “Great Ice Age,” 2nd ed. p. 290.

page 370 note 3 Edin. Journ. Science, vol. iv. p. 88Google Scholar.

page 370 note 4 Q. J. G. S. vol. xxxv. p. 779Google Scholar.

page 372 note 1 Brit. Assoc. Reports for 1876, p. 90. Dr. Gibson states that no fossils had been found in the Old Eed Sandstone rocks of Foula. We were fortunate enough to discover numerous specimens of Psilophyton princeps, Dawson, in shales in the north of the island. Similar plant-remains occur in the sandstone near Lerwick and Sandlodge, on the east side of Shetland.

page 372 note 2 Had we been disposed to refer to the observations of others, which were not corroborated by ourselves, we might have adduced the testimony of Mr. Milne Home, regarding Norwegian boulders in Shetland. In an article entitled “Are there no boulders in Orkney and Shetland ?” Nature, vol. xvi. p. 476, he refers to certain boulders reported to the Edin. Roy. Soc. Boulder Committee. Under the heading “Bressay” the following statement is made: “A number of boulders here, of a rock foreign to the island. One of them is 10 × 7 × 4 feet. Supposed to have been transported from Norway.”