BY A. MONTGOMERY, M.A. 163 
glaciers; it is a succession of low rolling hummocks of 
rounded outlines, and full of small lakes and tarns. From 
the top of Barn Bluff I counted over one hundred little lakes 
in sight at one time in this plateau, and there are probably 
several hundreds in all. Some of these little lakes are very 
pretty, Lake Isles in particular; but indeed the whole of the 
scenery of this part of the country is most beautiful. 
On the slopes of Barn Bluff there are two or more lines of 
moraine ridges, separating flat valleys, which have been the 
beds of adjacent glaciers; these are mainly composed of 
immense loose blocks of greenstone from the cap of the peak. 
The discovery of loose angular blocks of cannel coal on the 
south-east spur from Barn Bluff has led to some of the 
ground being laid open by mining operations, and it is soon 
seen that the fragments are portion of a ground moraine. 
The superficial soil, to a depth of over 20 feet in parts, is 
composed entirely of angular fragments of the adjacent 
rocks of all sizes, jumbled together in the wildest confusion. 
In one of the pits a large sheet of cannel coal, evidently lifted 
as a whole from the main seam, was come upon, and proved 
to extend over a space some 16 feet square, or more, but when 
cut through it was found to ke resting on loose angular frag- 
mentary material, in which, among other things, were angular 
blocks of the coal itself, one piece standing on edge immediately 
under the large sheet. No landslip or river could carry such 
a sheet of coal without breaking it, but ice could easily lift it 
from its bed, and transport it a very considerable distance 
uninjured. It may be remarked that the lumps of cannel 
lying about the surface of the ground are nearly of as good 
quality as those dug up from some feet deep, so that exposure 
to the weather has not had much effect on the mineral. This 
coal, which, by the way is associated with fragments of shale 
carrying prints of a Gilossopteris and a Noeggerathiopsis, and 
therefore belongs to the lower or Mersey coal measures, is a 
very bituminous substance, and would doubtless resist 
atmospheric alteration for a very long time, but I hardly think 
it possible for it to have been exposed or lying near the surface 
from, say, the miocene period till now without very perceptible 
oxidation ; its good state of preservation, therefore, strengthens 
my belief that the glaciation is of pleistocene date. Another 
argument in favour of a comparatively modern date being 
ascribed to it is found in the small amount of destruction of 
the ground moraine by subaerial erosion, the ground having 
all the appearance of not having long been denuded of its ice 
covering, and not being cut into fresh shapes by the modern 
watercourses, as we should expect if it had long been exposed 
to their action, especially in a district where the rainfall is so 
heavy as round Cradle Mountain. 
Going from Barn Bluff towards Granite Tor the rolling 
