John Aitken

“ On the approach of the long winter which preceded the period when ice overspread the county of Lancaster and the whole of the northern part of our island, the severity of the climate would gradually increase; and during this time large accumulations of snow would take place, and ice be formed in deep and sheltered situations like those presented by the Walsden, Cliviger, and Todmorden valleys. ”

“ A great number of facts, and the statements of various authorities as to the altitude of high-level drift on the western slopes of the Pennine chain, indicate a general elevation of from 1100 to 1200 feet, whilst scattered boulders and pebbles of travelled rocks may be detected at various places in the locality some 200 feet in excess of that; and I contend that these more elevated stray boulders and pebbles owed their origin to icebergs during the interglacial period, and not to the period of land ice. ”

“ Starting from this centre, three valleys radiate in different directions, in lines almost equidistant from each other:—one stretching off through Walsden to Littleborough for a space of about 5 miles in a direction a little W. of S.; another taking a N.W. course through the sinuous gorge of Cliviger to Burnley, a distance of about 8 miles; whilst the third, the valley of the Calder, takes an E.N.E. direction. ”

“ In support of the theory that a large body of moving ice meeting with resistance sufficiently powerful can be either entirely arrested, or its various portions be endowed with varying and diverse motions, we have the authority of the Duke of Argyll, Prof. ”