2 RAILWAY APPROACHES. 



do not, and cannot penetrate it : for the obvious 

 reason that railways cannot traverse or pierce 

 granite mountains, or span broad lakes. If the 

 time should ever come when iron roads will in- 

 tersect the mountainous parts of Westmorland 

 and Cumberland, that time is not yet ; nor is in 

 view, — loud as have been the lamentations of 

 some residents, as if it were to happen to-morrow. 

 No one who has ascended Dunmail Raise, or 

 visited the head of Coniston Lake, or gone by 

 Kirkstone to Patterdale, will for a moment imagine 

 that any conceivable railway will carry passengers 

 over those passes, for generations to come. It is 

 a great thing that steam can convey travellers 

 round the outskirts of the district, and up to its 

 openings. This is now effectually done ; and it 

 is all that will be done by the steam locomotive 

 during the lifetime of anybody yet born. The 

 approach may now be made either by Windermere 

 or Coniston. In order to reach the latter place, 

 the main line must be left at Carnforth, the last 

 principal station before reaching Oxenholme by 

 the train from the south. But the most impor- 

 tant of the openings thus reached is that of Win- 

 dermere, and we will therefore presume that the 

 traveller begins his tour from this point. 



The mountain-region of Cumberland and West- 

 morland has for its nucleus the cluster of tall 

 mountains of which Scawfell is the highest. 

 There are the loftiest peaks and deepest valleys. 

 These are surrounded by somewhat lower ridges 

 and shallower vales; and these again by others, 

 till the uplands are mere hills and the valleys 

 scarcely sunk at all. It is into these exterior un- 



