u and Mr. Jamieson through it. It is out of my line nowadays, and
above and beyond me.

LETTER 526. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, September 28th [1861].

It is, I believe, true that Glen Roy shelves (I remember your Indian
letter) were formed by glacial lakes. I persuaded Mr. Jamieson, an
excellent observer, to go and observe them; and this is his result.
There are some great difficulties to be explained, but I presume this
will ultimately be proved the truth...

LETTER 527. TO C. LYELL. Down, October 1st [1861].

Thank you for the most interesting correspondence. What a wonderful case
that of Bedford. (527/1. No doubt this refers to the discovery of flint
implements in the Valley of the Ouse, near Bedford, in 1861 (see Lyell's
"Antiquity of Man," pages 163 et seq., 1863.) I thought the problem
sufficiently perplexing before, but now it beats anything I ever heard
of. Far from being able to give any hypothesis for any part, I cannot
get the facts into my mind. What a capital observer and reasoner Mr.
Jamieson is. The only way that I can reconcile my memory of Lochaber
with the state of the Welsh valleys is by imagining a great barrier,
formed by a terminal moraine, at the mouth of the Spean, which the
river had to cut slowly through, as it drained the lowest lake after
the Glacial period. This would, I can suppose, account for the sloping
terraces along the Spean. I further presume that sharp transverse
moraines would not be formed under the waters of the lake, where the
glacier came out of L. Treig and abutted against the opposite side of
the valley. A nice mess I made of Glen Roy! I have no spare copy of
my Welsh paper (527/2. "Notes on the Effects produced by the Ancient
Glaciers of Caernarvonshire, and on the Boulders transported by Floating
Ice," "Edinb. New Phil. Journ." Volume XXXIII., page 352, 1842.); it
would do you no good to lend it. I suppose I thought that there must
have been floating ice on Moel Tryfan. I think it cannot be disputed
that the last event in N. Wales was land-glaciers. I could not decide
where the action of land-glaciers ceased and marine glacial action
commenced at the mouths of the valleys.

What a wonderful case the Bedford case. Does not the N. American view of
warmer or more equable period, after great Glacial period, become much
more probable in Europe?

But I am very poorly to-day, and very stupid, and hate everybody and
everything. One lives only to make blunders. I am going to wr