When business began in 1895 the first loans were made at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum, but this was found to be too low, and in 1896 the rate was raised to 6 per cent. It was lowered again to 5 per cent. in 1908, when the deposit balance had become large enough to justify this step. Interest at 3 per cent. is paid on deposits, which thus provide the cheapest money. The rules lay down that deposits must remain with the society for three months at least, and that one month's notice of withdrawal must be given. But in practice the society is able to accommodate depositors by giving them their money at a few days' notice, so that the rule is merely protective. Since 1894 the society has made eighty-nine loans, their aggregate amount being £2,563 10s. The working expenses have been very small, Mr. Spencer having carried on the work without remuneration until 1911, when it was resolved that he should be paid £2 a year for his services.

The affairs of the society are managed by a committee. In a leaflet issued by the Board of Agriculture last year it was stated that the committee at that time consisted of three small farmers, a carpenter, a blacksmith, and a woodman. Applicants for membership must be approved by the committee, and the committee-men themselves are elected annually by the members in general meeting.

The figures which have been given will of course look very small to anyone who is accustomed to large financial transactions. But in the Raiffeisen system of co-operative credit the figures are necessarily small. The system is only applicable to the less wealthy classes of the rural community, and one of its governing principles is that the area covered by a single society must be small. In fact one essential to the successful working of the system is that the members of a society should be known to one another, and that the affairs of each should be generally understood by most of the others. Since loans are only made for specified reproductive or provident purposes, there must be some way of ascertaining that they are actually employed for the purposes for which they are granted. In a community like that which inhabits the parish of Scawby this point is provided for so long as the society does not extend its operations too far afield. If every member knows what the others have borrowed and the member knows what the others have borrowed and the purpose of each loan, it is quite impossible for the money to be employed improperly without the whole parish being aware of the fact. The committee also, owing to its familiarity with the life of the parish, is in a position to judge whether any applicant for a loan can make use of it as he proposes and be sure to profit by it sufficiently to ensure the repayment of principal and interest. Publicity is the essence of this kind of credit, the only point on which the committee should withhold information being the amount of any individual's deposits.

I said that the transactions of a society of this type must look very small when measured against the vast totals we are accustomed to associate with bank returns; but if every parish in Great Britain where there is room for such an institution possessed a credit society as sound as the one I have sketched, the total of their transactions would mount up to a very large sum. In Germany the aggregate amount lent out in the year by credit societies of the Raiffeisen type approaches £70,000,000.

In the letter already referred to, Mr. Spencer wrote, “Considering the vast possibilities of national benefit I am surprised that the question [co-operative credit] has not been more fully ventilated in the Press, and more generally taken up throughout the country." It is indeed surprising that a system capable of such wide extension and so beneficent in its influence has not been adopted more generally. The machinery for applying it however is now complete. At the end of 1913 the Agricultural Organisation Society has fiftytwo credit societies, including the one I have described, affiliated to it. The formation of a society is a simple matter. It is only necessary to apply to the Agricultural Organisation Society in order to secure the services of a skilled organiser. The working of this kind of co-operative credit is extremely easy, but whatever guidance may be

necessary will be furnished in return for a very small affiliation fee, which the humblest credit society can afford. IN THE OUTLOOK for December 13 I attempted to outline the constitution of an imaginary credit society, with limited liability suitable to a large rural district or even a whole county. Such a society is of course intended to serve a class of agriculturists wealthier than that from which the membership of the Scawby Society is drawn. It may now be further explained that the limited liability society is intended to foster and finance parish or village societies, like that of Scawby, within its area. The limited liability society would deal with two classes of customers. First, the wealthier farmers whose smallest loan would probably be not less than £25 or £50. Transactions with these would be direct. The other class of customers would be the parish or village societies, with whom business would be done as corporate bodies, and which would cater for the poorer class by lending out small sums of from £1 to £50.

The words" unlimited liability " often cause unnecessary alarm to those who contemplate the foundation of a village society. It has already been explained how the dangers of unlimited liability are provided against, and there is no doubt that when the members of a society are very poor it is generally necessary for them to combine the whole of their resources in order to create a sound basis of credit. Nevertheless limited liability may be applied to village societies when the members are of sufficient financial standing. It is probable enough that, as the network of co-operative credit spreads over this country-and it is bound to spread-village or parish societies, some with limited and others with unlimited liability, will grow up and become subsidiaries to county or district societies of some such type as that described in THE OUTLOOK of December 13, and that the Central Co-operative Agricultural Bank will ultimately be a federation of thousands of these local institutions and the chief link between them and the open money market.

The writer of "RURAL DEVELOPMENT" will be glad to organisation and co-operation, provided that stamped and reply through the post to inquiries relating to agricultural addressed envelopes are enclosed by inquirers, who should write to PATRICK PERTERRAS, c/o "THE OUTLOOK,” 167 Strand, London, W.C. 167 Strand, London, W.C.

N

THE ULSTER FIGHTING FORCE. By G. CRICHTON MILN. Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just; And he but naked, though locked up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. 2 Henry VI, Act 3, Sc. 2. EVER since the late Lord Randolph Churchill uttered the memorable words, "Ulster will fight, and Ulster will be right," has that staunch province of Ireland been so near to the arbitrament of arms as at the present moment. Even the seemingly optimistic members of the present Government inferentially admit this. Else why their sudden alarms? That which was but a "bluff" yesterday is to-day held in check by a Royal proclamation. Why? Certainly the issuance of the King's command forbidding the importation of arms into Ireland can only mean that the Government at last believes there are men there ready and eager to use them. For surely even so idiosyncratic a Government as the one over which the "wait and see" Premier presides would not issue a proclamation merely to checkmate a vociferous bluff.

No! Conviction that Lord Randolph's prognostication still. remains true of the men of Ulster is at last established in the Ministerial mind; and so while the Prime Minister pompously announces his willingness to treat with the Opposition leaders, the Foreign Secretary bids them refrain from anything in the nature of "hurry"! We Unionists are to repress our indignation at the proposed rupture of the

Union, and to consent to a peace which leaves undisturbed the central idea of a separate Parliament to control an undivided Ireland. Meanwhile Ulster-Protestant Ulsterstands like a rock for the maintenance of the "British connection." The determination on the part of the Ulstermen to resist separation to the death is inflexible. No one who knows them, even superficially, would care to deny this. And so we are brought face to face with the question: Is Ulster ready? Is she in a condition to offer effective armed resistance to any attempt to force upon her the dicta of a Dublin Parliament?

A very little close analysis would probably convince an unbiased mind that a volunteer force raised in Ulster, perhaps not altogether efficiently equipped, would not be able to ultimately resist the armed battalions of the Crown. But that is not to say that it could not resist long enough to kindle a conflagration throughout the kingdom, and to overthrow, with ignominy, the jockeying Ministry whose fatuous folly produced the fratricidal conflict.

Personally I am deeply convinced that Ulster is in a condition of more efficient readiness for armed resistance than most of us on this side of the Irish Sea believe. Undoubtedly at the present moment there exists in Ulster a disciplined force quite able to protect her rights if, to use a facetious expression of Sir Edward Carson's, "the British Army would only keep the ring! But we have to contemplate the probability that the British Army will be opposed to Ulster. What then? How long could she resist? Well, there are several considerations which lead one to believe that even in such a case it would be no "walk over " for the forces of the Crown.

Suppose the glowing optimism of the Ulster Unionists be divided by two all round-that is as to numbers, arms, discipline, and efficiency-even then the contest between the patriots of Ulster and the regular forces of the Crown would not be altogether one-sided. The Irish Unionists declare that there are now ninety thousand men enlisted in the volunteer army. Let us divide this by two, leaving out all but the well-disciplined, well-armed, and inflexibly determined men, and we can feel well assured that forty-five thousand such fighting men would go far to recall the glorious resistance which their forbears offered to the attacks of James II. I do not admit that it is necessary so to reduce the force of ninety thousand claimed by the Irish leaders, but it is a reduction which should satisfy the belittling inclination of even the most supercilious Radical-and where does it leave us? Face to face with a possible conflict between the national troops and forty-five thousand determined and patriotic men, fighting for their civil liberties and their religion.

With a

I put the case at its worst for Ulster; and I do so only to show that if a conflict is allowed to occur it will not be a mere question of rioting to be easily stamped out by a few battalions of regulars, led by a general eager to add to his laurels as an effective suppressor of mobs. There is another factor on the side of Ulster of which I have made no note: I mean the splendid impulsion of that deep moral conviction which is such a mighty force in any conflict. splendour and simplicity of phrase in which he is unmatched, Shakespeare expresses this in the line "Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just "; and if ever a patriot people believed their quarrel "just," certainly the Protestants of Ulster do. One has therefore to count upon the backing of this splendid motive. I had almost said this unconquerable motive, for surely it is nearly that. And what of the other side? Does anyone, even Mr. Seely, pretend that the shooting down of their fellow-citizens by the soldiers of the King is a task to their liking? Has no erosion occurred during the past year among our armed forces in view of this possible conflict? I challenge Mr. Seely to deny the resignation of officers during 1913 whose motive was that they might stand free to fight for Ulster! And if officers have done this, and many others are ready to do it, what about Tommy Atkins himself? There is such a thing as firing in the air; and even the military expert, accustomed to sup

pressing mobs, cannot guarantee his Coalition prompters against such contingencies.

This picture is bad enough; but let us make it even worse. Suppose, instead of a disciplined force of forty-five thousand, Ulster in the last extreme could only muster forty-five thousand undisciplined and poorly armed men, whose one great virtue was a readiness to be shot in their tracks rather than submit to ejection from the Empire and the oppression of their traditional foes! What then? It would be an ignoble day for British arms in which they were employed to slaughter patriots ready to die in the cause of liberty. Could any Ministry, in this democratic age, survive a catastrophe so terrible? No wonder Sir Edward Grey advises us not to be in a hurry, and his chief, after a sporadic outburst of defiance at Leeds, reverts to the more peaceable counsels of Ladybank! In whichever way you look at it, the position of Ulster is ominous of trouble to Mr. Asquith and his Ministerial followers.

Perhaps ultimately it would be a good thing for Great Britain if the Ulstermen came to grips with the Imperial forces. There is however but little prospect of such a conflict. What is more likely to happen is the patching up of a temporary and ineffectual compromise. I say "temporary and ineffectual," because when one considers the antithetical convictions of the two great parties on this subject, and certainly when one takes into account the irrepressible restlessness of the Nationalists, it seems next to impossible that an enduring peace should be made between them. And if the compromise is but temporary, will it not leave us presently in an even more lamentable position than the present?

Mr. Asquith has already contemplated the cul de sac into which his complaisance has led him. If he placates Ulster he angers the South; if he completes his bargain with the South he must face an implacable Ulster. For my part, as I said some time since in these columns, I see but one honourable method of exit for the Prime Minister, and that is to defer the whole matter until such time as he is ready to give extended local government to the various divisions of the United Kingdom. To do this he would have to secure the concurrence of the Nationalist leader, and the question which immediately arises is: Does Mr. Redmond's recently hatched Imperial zeal reach to that length; and if it does, will his leading followers permit the patriotic delay of a question bristling with difficulties, no matter from what angle it is viewed?

Whatever may be the reflections of the Government and of the Nationalists upon this burning and apparently insoluble enigma, the position of the Unionist Party is as plain as the proverbial pikestaff. In a position bounded with perplexities Mr. Bonar Law has indicated the course our party will pursue. We stand to back Ulster in her claim to remain beneath the aegis of the British Parliament until such time as the whole question is submitted to the electorate; and then we stand to submit to the decision of the people. Will the other side do as much to avert civil war?

KT

KIKUYU.

By A. K. INGRAM.

IKUYU is becoming quite a famous word. It is not easy to pronounce, and that perhaps lends an extra charm to talking about it. Kikuyu is an ecclesiastical storm-cloud, but, to use a mixed metaphor, it has “caught on" in the daily Press, and everyone seems anxious to issue an encyclical upon it.

What then is the significance of Kikuyu? Some months ago two bishops out in East Africa undertook a work of federation with certain Protestant Nonconformist bodies. The scheme was that all who accepted the Bible, the Apostles' and the Nicene Creeds should enter into relations with each other, receive the Holy Communion in each other's churches, and, though retaining their separate denominational governments, unite in various other ways. After

the conference which had drawn up the scheme one of the bishops administered the Holy Communion to all the members of the conference, Church and Nonconformist, the service taking place in a Presbyterian church. The Bishop of Zanzibar has now charged his two brother bishops with heresy, and it is probable that the archbishops at home will take action.

tempted to wonder whether, if reunion were accomplished, the number of Christian converts would leap from tens to thousands. Unity is strength, but we are perhaps in danger of exaggerating the force of its strength. Certainly it would be a deadly mistake of tactics to effect reunion with Nonconformists at the cost of splitting the Church of England. If that should ever be the result of Kikuyu, that redoubtable word will stand not for unity, but rather for a hardening of the existing barriers which stand in the way of the fulfilment of our Lord's prayer-" that they all may be one."

The matter may now be said to be sub judice, and it would be obviously unfair to the Church authorities to assume beforehand what their decision will be and criticise or threaten dire results should their decision go in one or other direction. But, in view of what has been said in some of the letters and articles which have already appeared, it is permissible and indeed necessary to clear away certain popular misconceptions which have arisen.

First, then, it is not a question of broad and narrow mindedness: it is a matter of what the Church of England does and does not allow. The most disastrous results follow when law is subordinate to sentiment. The Church of England has a law, and it is precisely for occasions such as these that that law was provided. It is of course always possible to alter the law, but, while the law is as it is, it must be obeyed. On any other principle than this no Church and no society could exist for a week. And though it may be said that the conditions of the mission field call for a less rigid discipline than is necessary at home, it must equally be insisted that no fundamental principle of Church law can be sacrificed for purposes of policy. Therefore the primary question to be considered is not whether it is advisable to work for the creation of a united native Church, but whether the scheme proposed is compatible with the present law of the Church of England. Whenever legal obligations are unconstitutionally flouted for any purpose whatever, the ultimate penalty is a severe one.

Secondly, it is not a question of exclusiveness and nonexclusiveness. Many correspondents who love the recreation of writing letters to the papers assume that for the Church to refuse the benefits of her ministration to any persons is simply a form of sacerdotal sectarianism. But a moment's reflection will show that there can be no such thing as non-exclusiveness. No one-except possibly Lord Headley --would seriously suggest that an unconverted Muhamadan should be admitted to Holy Communion. The Kikuyu conference is itself exclusive, for it rules out of the proposed common membership non-Christians and even Christians who do not subscribe in some sense to the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. Every argument which is used against those who refuse to co-operate, let us say, with the Presby-' terians, can equally be used against those who have ruled out of the Kikuyu scheme Unitarians or even Jews. A line has somewhere to be drawn, and the question therefore is simply one of degree.

A

COUPLE of weeks ago it was the cheering effect of the repertory system upon the English actor we were speaking about, and indirectly upon the dramatic critic. It cheers the dramatic critic to see the English actor given his range. The writer about the English theatre finds himself in a position of some difficulty. On the one hand it is expected of him (he is assured) that he should say something about the acting; on the other, there is nothing to be said about the acting. English acting is the art of doing something as early as possible in life, and living happily ever afterwards on doing the same thing. It does not matter what the English actor does-it may be the tactful butler or the senile old gentleman; but the tactful butler or the senile old gentleman the English actor must remain to the end of his days, if the English theatre has its way. This being so, there are two courses open to the writer about the English theatre. One is to say that Mr. So-and-so was the butler, and the other is to say that the butler was Mr. Soand-so. After a year or two it is cheering to the writer about the English theatre to find that Mr. So-and-so is not the butler. Perhaps no one except the writer about the English theatre can understand how cheering it is to record that Mr. So-and-so was not the butler. It stimulates him into the belief that acting is an art again, when he had fallen deep beneath the spell of the agent and fancied, with the agent, the acts of man to be seven ages, and the whole duty of the actor a deed of suitable appropriation.

There is another thing about the repertory system which is cheering, and that is its stimulus to what one may call the sense of comparison. It is not easy for the writer about the theatre to serve out his columns of a criticism that is properly and honestly technical to a public which keeps its experiences of pleasure in careful water-tight compartments. It is an immense assistance that this public should see, at the same theatre and preferably by the same company, two plays, one perhaps in the evening and one in the afternoon. Then they will institute comparisons; and a public which has begun to institute comparisons is a public which has begun to be saved. Have you not watched, with admiration, the gymnastics of the critics, by which they will bring in Bunyan and Borrow and Samuel Butler in one breath, in commending to your attention some one who has written a novel? These exercises have their good side: they are at work upon your sense of comparison. And now that repertory is in the air of the London theatres, Mr. Frohman has allowed the Duke of York's to revert to an earlier experimental era. Peter Pan had to come on, of course, but it has come on only in the afternoons, and Quality Street is to be seen in the evenings. The result is a comparative study in the art of Sir J. M. Barrie that would not otherwise have been possible. The result, for Mr. Godfrey Tearle, is that he goes on playing the silent tender man in the evenings, and in the afternoons he is Captain Hook, who is neither tender nor silent. He has been given his range, and the result is that it is possible to write about his acting. The new experiment in repertory at the Duke of York's Theatre is a strictly limited experiment, but it is one to be cordially commended.

excellences which must be to many, I am sure, surprising. It has a first act which is in two senses a nursery-in the plain common sense in which it is a nursery to Nana, and in the sense in which it is the place of preparation for the play's whole after-life to the spectator, observant or unobservant. To take one example only of the business of dramatic preparation working very sweetly, there is Tinker Bell's "You silly ass." Once in the first act, once in the second act, I think, the metallic message is translated for us; with the result that in the third act the mere concatenation is irresistible-there is not a child in the theatre who misses the fun. It is a very happy thing to have your dramatic technique confirmed out of the mouths of babes and sucklings; and that is the happiness of Sir J. M. Barrie. If his first act is building surely the foundations of belief in childish hearts, his second act is prompt in supplying the most glorious superstructure in a manner-I mean technically a manner-which is equal in mastery. The manner in which Sir J. M. Barrie's second act piles pirates upon Indians, crocodile upon pirates, wolves upon crocodile, without ever a pause, but always with preparation, is a thing that is in cold fact remarkable when you have come to look on Peter Pan without the glamour. I think, if I were professor in an American university, that I should make this second act the text of my sessional lectures on Cumulative Effect in Drama. Nor is Sir J. M. Barrie's building a building with the usual disability of the building that is run up-it does not collapse; and that is because, though he decorates each storey with a climax, he has always a climax left for the storey that remains. These, with the added excellence that each person in his drama is a person of character, so that the fat pirate who trembles is as distinct an individuality as Nibs or Tootles (what child has ever asked his parent or guardian which is which?)-these are the excellences of Sir J. M. Barrie in the afternoon. These are the excellences which make it quite useless for all the other theatres at this time of the year to try very hard to find a second Peter Pan. They will not find a second Peter Pan until they find a second dramatist of an equal authenticity to write it.

The excellences of Sir J. M. Barrie in the evening have principally a value that is negative: they point to the excellences of Sir J. M. Barrie in the afternoon. Quality Street is a work of the pre-specifically-dramatic Barrie. You might miss the first act of Quality Street, and be tolerably acquainted at the rise of the curtain on the dancing class with all that had happened ten years before. You cannot afford to be even five minutes late for the first act of Peter Pan (and this is a warning). From Quality Street you might tear yourself away at the end of the third act, and be fairly certain you had, with an ounce of the deductive faculty, the play in its entirety. What nice child ever wanted to be taken out of Peter Pan before the end? In the evening the pleasure is the pleasure of recognition-a recognition, too, at second-hand, of quiet Austenish delights; in the afternoon it is the rich pleasure of surprise. Not entirely second-hand in the evening, for when Captain Brown says he 'not such a man," you recognise that he is not such a man, but very nearly a real man, in the true manner of Sir J. M. Barrie. There is freshness, too, in the cleverness of the piece, as when Captain Brown tells Miss Phoebe masquerading as her niece that he knew a lady very like her once, only to award her the worst of the comparison; but it is a freshness which is extrinsic, a quality in Sir J. M. Barrie's redeeming treatment of an outworn little theme. Your grown-ups will say how sweet it is, because of the dresses, because of the manners, because of the children, because of one thing or another; but your children will have little patience with it, because they will be certain that they saw something which held their attention better in the

66

afternoon.

If Miss Nina Boucicault, on the true principles of repertory, had played Peter in the afternoon as well as Miss Susan in the evening (a part which she played beautifully), it would be possible to say something about the acting of Peter; as it is, I can only say that Miss Pauline Chase was

E

P. P. H.

THE GLACIAL PERIOD, OR GREAT ICE AGE.

By Professor EDWARD HULL, F.R.S.

I. THE BRITISH ISLES.

ARLY HISTORY.-This remarkable period in geological history began to attract the attention of observers about the time when the foundations of that now popular branch of science were being laid by its early pioneers; when Buckland, Lyell, Sedgwick, Murchison, and others were arousing attention to the structure of the earth and its surface phenomena. It had been observed that large blocks of rock, such as granite, etc., were strewn over the land in the north of England far removed from any of the same in situ, but generally originating in northern directions. Buckland had noticed them, and triumphantly pointed to them as evidence of the Noachian Deluge; but others, less specific on the subject, were satisfied with recognising them under the term of "the Northern Drift." Murchison however had come to recognise them as having been transported by glacial ice; and in his great work on Russia and the Ural Mountains had noticed that these erratic blocks of Swedish granite were scattered over the plains of Northern Russia and adjoining countries, and has traced by a line on his map the limit of their range in Northern Europe. In Switzerland blocks of granite and other rocks, which had their origin in the Central Alps, were observed to be stranded on the sides of the valleys, far from their source; and called forth the investigations of geologists upon their mode of transport, leading them to the conclusion that they had been transported on glacier ice, which must therefore have extended far below and beyond the present limits of the glaciers. In connection with this subject the names of De Saussure, Agassiz, Charpentier, and our British observers, Forbes and Tyndall, will ever be had in remembrance.

These phenomena, observable in districts so wide apart as Switzerland, Norway, and Britain, all pointed to one general agency-the carrying power of glacier ice, even in districts from which glaciers are at present altogether absent. For the period when these phenomena were in progress the name Glacial Period" or "Great Ice Age" was generally adopted.*

Effects of Glacial Action.-Before entering upon any of Edinburgh University, which attracted much attention at the time Great Ice Age was the title of a work by Professor James Geikie, (1874).

general description of the former glaciers and snowfields of the British Isles it may be desirable to refer to the effects of glacial action as more or less applicable to all countries.* One of the effects of the movement of glaciers over rocksurfaces is to mould them into "roches moutonnées," or rounded forms with "crag and tail," the surface having been worn down, polished, and striated in the direction pointing to the movement of the ice. The striation is due to the fact that the ice holds in its mass stones and fragments of rock which act as tools in wearing down the surface. The name "roche moutonnée" is that given by the Swiss to masses rising from beneath the sward like the backs of a flock of sheep, the striæ on the surface indicating the direction of the motion of the ice; and on the same mass there may be two or more directions, pointing to a change in the movement of the ice.

What is a Glacier?--It may be desirable that before describing the extent of the snowfields and glaciers of the British Isles I should endeavour to explain of what a glacier consists. In a few words, a glacier is a river of ice draining a snowfield, somewhat as a river of water drains a lake; and as rivers vary in form and dimensions according to those of lakes, so do glaciers according to the form and extent of the snowfields from which they descend. The resemblance may be carried farther. In both cases the impelling force is gravitation, which acts directly when the descent is downwards; but where the glacier has to surmount an obstacle, such as a barrier of rock, or moves over nearly level ground, the vis a tergo comes into action, which has been attributed to alternate melting and regelation along fissure-planes.

Numerous observations, carried out by J. D. Forbes and Tyndall on the Mer de Glace of Switzerland,† have established other points of resemblance between rivers and glaciers. Like a river, a glacier moves faster at the centre than at the sides, and at the surface than at the bottom; and where two glaciers unite they act as a single one in this respect, just as two rivers would do. Again, when a glacier bends round from its direct flow the centre of motion is projected towards the exterior angle of the valley. Finally, the rate of movement varies with the season of the year and the temperature of the air, being faster in warm and slower in cold weather.

The Vanished Glaciers of the British Isles.-The first observer to describe the effects of glacial action in the British Isles was Professor A. C. Ramsay, who, while engaged on the geological survey of North Wales, devoted much of his attention to the evidence of glacial action in the Llanberis Valley and elsewhere, and afterwards published a little work on The Old Glaciers of North Wales. During part of this time I was Ramsay's assistant, and under his guidance became acquainted with the glacial evidence as afforded in Wales. Some years afterwards I spent my holiday in the Ambleside district of the Lakes, and in a short time fully recognised the glacial evidence there presented to view in the district bordering on Windermere and the mountain slopes; from which it became evident that the Scawfell and Helvellyn range had been an axis of dispersion for glacier ice to the north and south, at the same period as that of North Wales, while the summits of the central range had been the originating snowfield.

About the middle of the last century it became generally

* Perhaps the best work on this subject to which the reader can be referred is Prestwich's Geology, vol. ii.

+ For an account of the historical part of the subject the reader may consult Tyndall's Glaciers of the Alps. Forbes's experiments were carried out on the Mer de Glace, and are recorded in his work Travels Through the Alps (1843). In these he was assisted by an able guide, Auguste Balmat, whose memory is held in honour by the people of Chamounix, and his statue stands in the centre of the village as a monument to his worth. Agassiz' experiments were carried out about the same time as

those of Forbes on the Glacier of the Aar, and the results communicat:d to the Academy of Science, August 29, 1843.

Afterwards Sir Andrew C. Ramsay, Director-General of the Geological Survey, U.K.

$ On communicating my discovery to Professor Ramsay he expressed his pleasure, and in a paper which was published in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal I recorded my observations, which had extended only over the southern part of the Lake District. These observations were continued on the north by Mr. J. C. Ward of the Geological Survey.

recognised that all the highest mountains of the British Isles had once been covered by perennial fields of snow, and had sent streams of glacier ice down their sides and over the adjoining lowlands. That the largest of these were situated in Scotland was the natural result of the higher elevations of the mountains and the more northerly position. The most important snowfields were those occupying the regions to the north and south of the Caledonian Canal, and from the former centre of dispersion the ice moved westward into the Atlantic Ocean on the one side and into the North Sea on the other. Here however it met the overmastering icesheet coming from Norway, which filled the sea, and forced the Scottish ice right round to the west, crossing the northern coast of Orkney and the Shetland Islands; and, entering the ocean (or more probably the Continental Platform), broke off in lofty cliffs some distance from the present coast. The Grampian ice also entered the North Sea on the east and, also filling the Clyde and northern part of the Irish Sea, swept over Ulster and entered the ocean at the coast beyond. It also crossed Anglesey, as shown by the rock-striations on that island, being independent of the glaciers descending from Snowdon. From these facts it will be recognised that the accumulation of the Grampian snow and ice must have been enormous. The upland hills of the Scottish borderlands also appear to have given off glacial ice to a smaller extent, which reached southwards into Lancashire.

Ireland. To the Rev. Maxwell Close we owe the earliest attempt to describe the glacial conditions of Ireland as indicated by the ice-striations on the rocks over a large part of the country, and his observations, recorded on the map which accompanies his paper on "The General Glaciation of Ireland,"* testify to the great ability and enthusiasm the author developed at a time when the subject was altogether new. This pioneer was followed by the geologists of the Survey, who, when engaged in mapping the "Solid Geology," were careful to record on the maps the direction of the striations on the rock-surfaces, the general result showing that the whole of the island was enveloped in snow and ice during the glacial period. Certainly all the principal mountain-tops became snowfields. Such were the highlands of Donegal to the north; those of Kerry to the south; Knockmealdown and Galtymore in the centre; those of Wicklow in the west, and those of Mourne and Slievè Donard in the north-east; all these were centres of dispersion of glacial ice, while the interior plains were swept by an ice-flood originating on a comparatively low tract ranging across the country from Galway to Antrim. Such is in brief the glacial history of Ireland at its earliest and most rigorous stage; a period of land elevation, as I hope to show when dealing with the problem of the cause of the glacial conditions then prevailing.†

Interglacial Period. The period, or epoch, of the Great Ice Age was succeeded by one of a comparatively milder climate, accompanying subsidence and partial submersion of the land, and recognised as the interglacial stage. It is indicated by beds of stratified sand and gravel resting in some places on the boulder clay of the previous epoch, and containing marine shells of species now living. There is therefore no doubt that they represent the levels at which the land stood above the sea. These levels have been determined at various places. In North Wales they reach on Moel Tryfaen a level of 1,360 feet above the sea, where they were first recognised by Mr. J. Trimmer; by Rev. M. Close on the Wicklow Hills at 1,235 feet; by Prestwich at Macclesfield in Cheshire at about 1,100 feet. From these maximum levels these marine strata decline to lower levels both to the north and south, but they indicate a very important submersion of the whole of the British Isles, as they are represented also in Scotland, as shown by Geikie.§

*Journ. Roy. Geol. Soc. vol. i. p. 224.

In my work On the Physical Geology and Geography of Ireland (second edition, 1891) the reader will find a map showing the snowfields and direction of the ice-movement. (E. Stanford.)

The interglacial epoch has been recognised by Professor J. Geikie, Great Ice Age, Sir C. Lyell, Antiquity of Man, and others. Great Ice Age, p. 255.