Observations on the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy

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Abstract
Many years have passed since I visited the remarkable scenery of the parallel roads of Glen Roy. Several explanations of their origin have been given; and my own view of the subject was, I apprehended, in accordance with the views of geologists. The recent paper of Sir John Lubbock upon that subject shows that the causes which have hitherto been assigned for their origin have not yet received general assent. Under these circumstances, I think it desirable to record the very simple explanation of their origin which had satisfied my own mind. In the largest of a system of valleys many hundred feet deep and whose sides are very steep, there occur three lines of terraces at different heights, each apparently preserving its horizontality over an extent of above twenty miles. The sight of these extensive parallel lines immediately suggests the idea either, 1st, that they had arisen from the beaches of ancient lakes which had formerly filled the intervening valleys, and that the levels of those lakes had at distant intervals been reduced by the bursting of successive barriers by which their waters had been confined; or 2ndly, that they had formed the beaches of a system of fiords, or narrow inlets of the sea, which had been elevated at various times by internal heat. The first of these suppositions is, I believe, most generally adopted; and it appears to me to be the most probable. These parallel roads themselves slope gently inwards towards the central valley. They are

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