63 



These few prefatory remarks are intended to render more clear 

 the observations that are to follow. 



2. Observed Facts. 



Extent of Deposits. The deposits to be considered approxi- 

 mately correspond with the area of the lower ground skirting the 

 base of the hills. They may be said to be almost continuous 

 from the sea shore up to the five hundred feet contour line. 

 Above that level they extend at a few places over small areas to 

 about eight hundred feet; and in tongue-like prolongations, up 

 valley bottoms and hillside gullies, they reach, and in some cases 

 pass beyond, looo feet. I speak now of the Boulder clays and 

 the sands and gravels only, for glacial deposits in the form of 

 Boulders and moraines occur, in places, at twice the above altitude, 

 as will hereafter be seen. 



The valleys passing inward, from the lower ground, through the 

 mountains, contain but few deposits comparatively, even when the 

 bottom of such valleys is far below the five hundred feet contour 

 line, the height fixed above as the upper limit of the continuous 

 drift. The main mass of the deposits is outside the mountains 

 altogether. 



Form of Deposits. Where fullest developed, the glacial deposits 

 of this district admit of a threefold division as below : — 



1. Upper Boulder Clay. 



2. Middle Sands and Gravels. 



3. Lower Boulder Clay. 



Numerous sections have at one time or another been laid open 

 in railway cuttings and other places, shewing these three members 

 in superposition; but for the present purpose it will only be 

 necessary to consider a few of them, as they are all very much 

 alike in their inner nature. Fig. i is a cross section of a cutting 

 on the Cleator and Workington Railway, near Cleator Moor. The 

 longitudinal section of this cutting is a low flattened dome, and 

 the band of interbedded sand and clay (B and C) runs almost 

 throughout, passing out of sight at each end of the cutting below 

 the formation of the railway. Where seen, the band is roughly 



