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nature of the change that occurs on traversing the country from 
Silloth, Bowness, or Burgh-by-Sands to the fells about Caldbeck 
or Ireby. 
The superficial beds consist of glacial drift, river-gravel, alluvium, 
and peat. There is, in addition, a strip of raised beach along the 
shore west of Bowness.* Of these beds the stony clays, gravels, 
and sands, which make up the higher or undulating ground, are the 
oldest, thickest, and most important. They form collectively what 
is known as the glacial drift, and underlie the peat-mosses, alluvium, 
and raised beach. The glacial drift is known near Abbey Town 
to reach a thickness of nearly 200 feet ; and though this thickness is 
probably exceptional, railway cuttings near Carlisle and elsewhere 
often show drift to the thickness of thirty feet or more without 
any sign of hard rock being visible. Well-sinkers cannot give so 
much information on this head as could be wished, as in consequence 
of occasionally losing water altogether from penetrating through 
the drift to a porous sandstone below, they are careful not to go a 
foot deeper than is absolutely necessary. 
The boundary of the district now under consideration may be 
roughly stated to be a line from Maryport to Rose Castle or there- 
abouts, and thence by Wetheral and Brampton to Hethersgill and 
the Scottish Border about Riddings Junction. Within this line the 
only spot where there is any appreciable area of ground uncovered 
by drift or other superficial beds is between Aspatria and West 
Newton. There about a square mile of country shows sandstone 
at or close to the surface. Elsewhere the lower rocks are seldom 
visible except here and there in the banks of the various streams. 
The ground varies in height from about 15 to 400 feet above the 
sea. The gteat alluvial flats close to the Solway vary from about 
15 to 30 feet, and heights of 300 to 4oo feet are only seen on the 
outer margin of the district, most of which is below 200 feet. 
Careful examination of the undulating ground shows it to be 
made up mainly of what may be called by the general name of 
“earthy gravel.” Sometimes it may seem more clayey, sometimes 
more sandy than usual, but the stones it contains are usually more 
* Described in Trans. Cumb. Assoc., Part II. 
