From Andrew Crombie Ramsay   17 February 1862

My dear Sir

I have a paper coming on at the Geol: Soc: on Wednesday the 26^th. which I will tell you the subject of, as it will interest you, though I do not expect you will be able to attend.¹ I am going to prove (I believe) that all the lake basins of the Alps have been scooped out by glacier ice. After two re-examinations of the country, with Lyell I have come to the conclusion that the old glaciers did extend as far as the Jura on the North, & quite into the Plains of Lombardy & Piedmont on the South.² The vast moraines of Ivrea &c completely prove the latter.

Further both in America & Europe the number of lakes (true rock basins) increase in number just in proportion as the country has been glaciated, & therefore I apply my theory to glaciated regions in the widest sense, showing, I conceive, that nothing but a solid such as ice could scoope out deep true rock-basins.

Of course I also allow special areas of subsidence, but these are not what I deal with. North of the S^t Lawrence you would require them every few miles & of all sizes from a few yards in diameter, which is I think impossible.

Ever truly | And^w C Ramsay