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1. On Grooved and Striated Rocks in the Middle Region of Scotland
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 March 2015
Extract
In this paper an account was given of grooved, striated, and abraded rocks in various parts of Scotland, from Glen Spean on the north, to the Pentland and Lammermoor Hills on the south. After indicating the direction in which the groovings pointed, it was shewn,—that the appearance of these grooved and striated rocks is irreconcilable with the hypothesis which ascribes the phenomena to a supposed great Atlantic wave or transient flood, of which one part swept across the low lands of Scotland, while another part was turned back by the mountains,—that in the district between the Clyde and the Spean, where the largest and best marked groovings were observed, there is satisfactory evidence to prove, that they were produced by bodies of vast depth occupying the valleys, moving from the mountain group as a common centre, toward the coast and the Lowlands in all directions, and exerting an immense force of pressure vertically and laterally,—that this quaquaversal motion, as well as the form, position, and size of the groovings, are conclusive against the idea that they were caused by currents of water loaded with stones and gravel, since no collected mass of water exists, or could exist, of the requisite magnitude and elevation, to send out streams in all directions capable of acting powerfully at the height of a thousand feet or more above the bottoms of the valleys,—that the effects mentioned, therefore, can only be accounted for by the agency of glaciers, as exemplified in the Swiss Alps.
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- Proceedings 1848-49
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- Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1850