The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 22
4. Absence of Gravel Kames and Raised Beaches in Shetland
4. Absence of Gravel Kames and Raised Beaches in Shetland.
Throughout the isles we searched in vain for those ridges of gravel which form such a notable feature in Scotland. Here and there the moraine mounds and the moraine debris, which is spread irregularly over the slopes of the hills, show signs of rudo stratification, while the stones are more or less waterworn; but no one would readily mistake them for true kames. Moreover there is a remarkable absence of raised beaches indicating changes in the relative level of sea and land. Though we examined the islands with considerable minuteness, we never found a trace of those familiar terraces which are so characteristic of parts of the Scotch coast-line. This is all the more remarkable, as the voes or sea-lochs are admirably adapted both for the formation and preservation of sea-beaches. We cannot help believing that, if such deposits had been formed, we must assuredly have met with some indications of them; and for this reason it seems just to infer that they never existed in Shetland. The remarks made by Professor Geikie in an article in 'Nature' * clearly show that their absence has an important bearing on the question of their origin. For if they be due, as Dr. Croll suggests, to the rise of the sea-level, owing to an accumulation of ice round the North Pole during the glacial period, then we should naturally expect to find them in localities which are so well adapted for their formation; but since this is not the case, we may infer that they indicate pauses in the gradual elevation of the land which must have been general over the whole of Scotland in postglacial times. It would seem, however, that Shetland did not participate in these general movements of upheaval.