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                               FRAGMENTS

                                  OF

                              EARTH LORE


                [Illustration: PLATE I

                           OROGRAPHIC MAP OF

                               SCOTLAND]




                               FRAGMENTS

                                  OF

                              EARTH LORE


                         SKETCHES & ADDRESSES

                      Geological and Geographical

                                  BY

               JAMES GEIKIE, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., &c.


         MURCHISON-PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY IN THE
                        UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
            FORMERLY OF H.M. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF SCOTLAND

                      WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

                               EDINBURGH
                        JOHN BARTHOLOMEW & CO.
         LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & Co., Ltd.
                                 1893




PREFACE.


The articles in this volume deal chiefly with the history of Glacial
times and the origin of surface-features. As they were not written with
any view to their subsequent appearance in a collected form, each is so
far independent and complete in itself. Under these circumstances some
repetition was unavoidable, if the articles were not to be recast, and
I did not think it advisable to make such radical alteration. With the
exception of verbal changes and some excisions, therefore, the papers
remain substantially in their original state. Here and there a footnote
has been added to indicate where the views expressed in the text have
since been modified; but I have not been careful to insert such notes
throughout. Geologists, like other folk, live and learn, and the reader
will probably discover that the opinions set forth in some of the
later articles are occasionally in advance of those maintained in the
writer's earlier days.

I have to thank the Publishers of _Good Words_ for allowing me to
republish the articles on the Cheviot Hills and the Outer Hebrides. My
acknowledgments are also due to Mr. Bartholomew for the excellent maps
with which the volume is so well illustrated.

  Edinburgh, _April 5th, 1893_.




LIST OF MAPS.


  Plate   I. PHYSICAL FEATURES OF SCOTLAND      _Frontispiece_

    "    II. STRUCTURE OF MOUNTAINS                         60

    "   III. PAST AND PRESENT GLACIATION OF THE WORLD      193

    "    IV. ICE AGE IN NORTHERN EUROPE                    324

    "     V. THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF CONTINENTS      348

    "    VI. BATHY-HYPSOMETRICAL MAP, ILLUSTRATING
              DEVELOPMENT OF COAST-LINES                   428




CONTENTS.


  CHAP.                                                 PAGE

     I. GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY                              1

    II. THE PHYSICAL FEATURES OF SCOTLAND                 14

   III. MOUNTAINS: THEIR ORIGIN, GROWTH, AND DECAY        36

    IV. THE CHEVIOT HILLS                                 62

     V. THE LONG ISLAND, OR OUTER HEBRIDES               125

    VI. THE ICE AGE IN EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA          160

   VII. THE INTERCROSSING OF ERRATICS IN GLACIAL
          DEPOSITS                                       194

  VIII. RECENT RESEARCHES IN THE GLACIAL GEOLOGY
          OF THE CONTINENT                               220

    IX. THE GLACIAL PERIOD AND THE EARTH-MOVEMENT
          HYPOTHESIS                                     248

     X. THE GLACIAL SUCCESSION IN EUROPE                 288

    XI. THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF EUROPE             326

   XII. THE EVOLUTION OF CLIMATE                         349

  XIII. THE SCIENTIFIC RESULTS OF DR. NANSSEN'S
          EXPEDITION                                     382

   XIV. THE GEOGRAPHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF COAST-LINES      393




I.

Geography and Geology.[A]

[A] Portion of a lecture given in 1886 to the Class of Geology in the
University of Edinburgh.


The teaching of Geography naturally occupies a prominent place in
every school curriculum. It is rightly considered essential that we
should from an early age begin to know something of our own and other
countries. I am not sure, however, that Geography is always taught in
the most interesting and effective manner. Indeed, according to some
geographers, who are well qualified to express an opinion, the manner
in which their subject is presented in many of our schools leaves much
to be desired. But a decided advance has been made in recent years,
and with the multiplication of excellent text-books, maps, and other
appliances, I have no doubt that this improvement will continue. When
I attended school the text-books used by my teachers were about as
repellent as they could be. Our most important lesson was to commit to
memory a multitude of place-names, and the maps which were supposed
to illustrate the text-books were, if possible, less interesting and
instructive. Nowadays, however, teachers have a number of more or less
excellent manuals at their service, and the educational maps issued by
our cartographers show in many cases a very great advance on the bald
and misleading caricatures which did duty in my young days as pictures
of the earth's surface.

During the progress of some war we often remark that the task of
following the military operations compels us to brush up our Geography.
I am uncharitable enough to suspect that it would