The international geography . so great a range of geological strata found in so small an area. In thenorth and west the most ancient and disturbed rocks known form the land,which is similar in character to the Scandinavian peninsula. Towards thesouth and east these ancient rocks are succeeded by Carboniferous stratacontaining the Coal Measures, which give place further south and east tomore recent formationsusually but little dis-turbed and resem-bling those of westernFrance. The northernand western regionshave possibly been onthe whole land areassince a very earlygeological period ; therocks
The international geography . so great a range of geological strata found in so small an area. In thenorth and west the most ancient and disturbed rocks known form the land,which is similar in character to the Scandinavian peninsula. Towards thesouth and east these ancient rocks are succeeded by Carboniferous stratacontaining the Coal Measures, which give place further south and east tomore recent formationsusually but little dis-turbed and resem-bling those of westernFrance. The northernand western regionshave possibly been onthe whole land areassince a very earlygeological period ; therocks of the south andeast have been formedby the sediments wornoff the northern landsand spread out onthe shores of seas, orin great fresh outburstsleading to the ac-cumulation of massesof hard igneous rockshave occurred at vari-ous geological periodsdown to and includ-ing the Tertiary inthe regions of ancientrocks, which have alsobeen subject to muchfaulting and folding;but apparently the morerecent regions of the. ^ Over 1,500 ft. /tan 500 1,500 ft. ^-^r~l Under 500 ft. Fig. .—Conjigiiration of the British Islands. east and south were not affected in this way. These facts fully account for theoccurrence of the highest land and finest scenery in the north and west,and the lowest and most uniform towards the south and east (Fig. 55).Many of the minor surface features of the islands have been produced bythe ice-sheet and glaciers of the Great Ice Age, which scratched, polished,and rounded the exposed rocks, and smothered the lower grounds in vastsheets of boulder clay, partly obliterating the former surface relief. Theextreme south of England alone escaped this action. The indented island-11 140 The Internationa] Geography starred coast of the west of the British Islands points to a depression or atilting of the whole region westwards after a complex system of valleys hadbeen impressed upon it by erosion. The drowned valleys of the west form- fjords or rias penetrati
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectgeography, bookyear19
