Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury) gives a brief statement of Ramsay's views
concerning the origin of lakes (Presidential Address, Brit. Assoc. 1881,
page 22): "Prof. Ramsay divides lakes into three classes: (1) Those which
are due to irregular accumulations of drift, and which are generally quite
shallow; (2) those which are formed by moraines; and (3) those which occupy
true basins scooped by glaciers out of the solid rocks. To the latter
class belong, in his opinion, most of the great Swiss and Italian
lakes...Professor Ramsay's theory seems, therefore, to account for a large
number of interesting facts." Sir Archibald Geikie has given a good
summary of Ramsay's theory in his "Memoir of Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay,"
page 361, London, 1895.)


LETTER 516. TO D. MACKINTOSH.
Down, February 28th, 1882.

I have read professor Geikie's essay, and it certainly appears to me that
he underrated the importance of floating ice. (516/1. "The Intercrossing
of Erratics in Glacial Deposits," by James Geikie, "Scottish Naturalist,"
1881.) Memory extending back for half a century is worth a little, but I
can remember nothing in Shropshire like till or ground moraine, yet I can
distinctly remember the appearance of many sand and gravel beds--in some of
which I found marine shells. I think it would be well worth your while to
insist (but perhaps you have done so) on the absence of till, if absent in
the Western Counties, where you find many erratic boulders.

I was pleased to read the last sentence in Geikie's essay about the value
of your work. (516/2. The concluding paragraph reads as follows: "I
cannot conclude this paper without expressing my admiration for the long-
continued and successful labours of the well-known geologist whose views I