8io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



present if I have given anj' of my readers a more rational reason in 

 future for eating their dinners. To be sure, Nature herself has admira- 

 bly provided that even the most unscientific person should find suffi- 

 cient internal conviction as to the desirability of dining without the aid 

 of extraneous exhortation ; but it is at least some comfort to know that 

 so universal and so unreasoning a practice is not altogether an unrea- 

 sonable one as well. — Belgravia. 



-♦♦♦- 



THE ORIGIN OF UPLAND LAKES. 



By Eev. J. CLIFTON WARD, F. G. S. 



WHO has not felt a sudden and intense pleasure when, rounding 

 the end of some mighty mountain or towering crag, the still 

 waters of an upland lake or tarn have first met the eye ? Perhaps, on 

 approach, wild birds have started from the smooth surface and left it a 

 little sea of shimmering gold, as the sun's light has been reflected from 

 each tiny wavelet. The raven's croak among the overhanging cliffs, 

 the patch of snow lying unmelted deep in a rocky fissure, the scattered 

 sheep browsing carelessly on the few grassy slopes, while all around 

 are masses of tumbled rock, and the light veil of cloud that ever and 

 anon sweeps the cliff-tops and adds an air of mystery and wonder to 

 the whole — all combine to make a scene which can not but send a thrill 

 of pleasure and perhaps of happy awe to every heart. Instinctively 

 one feels, if the power of expression be not present, what Nature's true 

 poet hath so truly sung : 



.... How divine 



The liberty, for frail, for mortal man, 



To roam at large among unpeopled glens 



And mountainous retirements, only trod 



By devious footsteps ; regions consecrate 



To oldest time! and, reckless of the storm 



That keeps the raven quiet in her nest, 



Be as a presence or a motion — one 



Among the many there. 



No one can wander over rugged and beautiful mountains without 

 being led to love and admire these calm sheets of water, which lie 

 nestled in hollows, and are ofttimes blackened by the shadow of encir- 

 cling cliffs. Love for such solitary spots soon excites our cviriosity as 

 to the origin of these miniature upland lakes. In the Cumbrian lake 

 district they are scattered broadcast over the country in far greater 

 numbers than most people imagine, and at a period not vastly remote 

 their number must have been more than double what it is now. But 

 the yearly waste of mountain-side and the matter brought down by 



