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I.—On a Preglacial Shoreline in the Western Isles of Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

W. B. Wright
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Extract

The preglacial platform of marine erosion discussed in the following pages was first discovered in the Island of Colonsay in the course of the geological survey of that island carried out in the summer of 1907, and the information then acquired is communicated with the permission of the Director of the Survey. The subsequent tracing of the shoreline in the adjoining islands was effected with the aid of a Government grant for scientific research in the gift of the Royal Society of London. For clearness and convenience of reference the subject will be treated under the following heads:—

I. Introductory remarks indicating the aims of the investigation.

II. Colonsay and Oronsay—description of the preglacial platform.

III. Islay.

IV. Mull and Iona.

V. The Treshnish Islands.

VI. Conclusion, setting forth the present state of the subject.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , March 1911 , pp. 97 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1911

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References

page 97 note 1 Interglacialists will excuse the use of this term in the sense of prior to the only apparent general glaeiation of the district in question.

page 97 note 2 Jamieson, T. F., “On the History of the Last Geological Changes in Scotland”: Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xxi, p. 178, 1865 Google Scholar.

page 98 note 1 Lamplugh, G. W., “Report on the Buried Cliff at Sewerby”: Proc. Yorkshire Geol. and Polytec. Soc., vol. ix, pp. 382–92, 1889, and Rep. Brit Assoc. for 1888.Google Scholar See also “Drifts of Flamborough Head”: Quart. Journ. Geol Soc., vol. xlvii, p. 394, and Proc. Yorks. Geol. and Polytec. Soc., vol. xv, pp. 91–5, 1903.Google Scholar

page 98 note 2 Tiddeman, R. H., “On the Age of the Raised Beach of Southern Britain as seen in Gower”: Rep. Brit. Assoc, 1900, p. 760 Google Scholar.

page 98 note 3 Lamplugh, G. W., “Geology of the Isle of Man,” p. 14: Mem. Geol. Surv. U.K., 1903 Google Scholar.

page 98 note 4 Wright, W. B. & Muff, H. B. (now Maufe), “The Pre-glaoial liaised Beach of the South Coast of Ireland”: Sci. Proe. Roy. Dublin Soc., vol. x (N.S.), pt. ii, p. 250, 1904.Google Scholar

page 98 note 5 Descriptions not yet published.

page 98 note 6 Fearnsides, W. G., “The Tremadoc Slates and Associated Rocks of South-East Carnarvonshire”: Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. lxvi, p. 182, 1910 Google Scholar.

page 99 note 1 For the benefit of readers who do not happen to be acquainted with the subject it may be mentioned here that two distinct raised beaches are known in Scotland, namely, the 100-foot late-glacial beach (with probably associated shorelines at lower levels) and the 25-foot postglacial or Neolithic beach. Their periods of formation were separated by one of elevation in which submerged forests were found.

page 100 note 1 As opposed to this, however, it should be noted that the scanty remnants of the preglacial platform found at Bray Head in Wicklow, which lies just within the area of distribution of the 25-foot beach, do not show any marked depression.

page 101 note 1 Aonan means a grassy pasture open to the sea, and surrounded by rocky cliffs. It does not strictly imply “a step between the higher and lower cliffs”, as stated by Mr. Symington Grieve, although it often is so. A small aonan, the Aonan nam Clach Mòra, north of the Cailleach Uragaig, is a grassy flat of beach gravel surrounded by cliffs and lying only a little above high-water mark. A former proprietor of the inn at Scalasaig, Mr. Donald M'Neill, being worried by his guests as to the meaning of Aonan nam Muc, translated it for their benefit as The Pig's Paradise, and by this name it has been commonly known since. To Mr. Grieve belongs the credit of having first recognized that some of the higher aonans along the west coast owe their origin to marine erosion; he does not, however, appear to have noticed that they are of preglacial age. See Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. v, p. 351, 1882–1883.Google Scholar

page 101 note 2 Figs. 2 and 3 are reproduced, by permission of the Controller of H.M. Stationery Office, from the Geological Survey Memoir on Sheet 35, Scotland.

page 102 note 1 See note 2, p. 101.