Scotland nowhere rises above the
present level of perpetual snow, while in Switzerland the whole Alpine
range has an altitude favorable to the preservation of glaciers. In the
range of the Jura, however, which had at one time its local glaciers
also, but which nowhere now rises above the line of perpetual snow, they
have disappeared as completely as in the Grampian Hills.
It would lead me too far, were I to give here a special account of all
the investigations I made in 1840 upon the distribution of glaciers in
Great Britain. I will therefore only point out a few of the more
distinct areas of distribution. The region surrounding Ben Wyvis formed
such a centre of dispersion from which glaciers radiated, and we have
another in the Pentland Hills about Edinburgh. In Northumberland, the
Cheviot Hills present a glacial centre of the same kind, and in the
Westmoreland Hills we have still another. In the last-named locality,
the glacial tracks can be followed in various directions, some of them
descending toward the northwest from the heights of Helvellyn, others
moving southward toward Ambleside. In Wales the same kind of glacial
distribution has been observed; but, as Professor Ramsay has treated
this subject in full, I would refer my readers to his masterly work for
a further account of the ancient Welch glaciers.
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