300 Mackintosh— On the Lake-district. 
Pluvial Action.— Origin of Rakes.—Before proceeding to the 
main subject of this article, it may be weil to notice how far rains 
and rivers have modified the external configuration of the Lake- 
district. With regard to the first, I think it may be safely asserted 
that, unless under very peculiar circumstances, the effect of rain is 
limited 10 the removal of sand or mud, and the roughening of the 
surface of rocks, without any new or determinate shape being com- 
municated, or the general outline altered. But this observation 
ceases to be applicable when mere pluvial action has passed into 
that of temporary brooks during heavy and continued falls of rain. 
These have evidently been instrumental to a considerable extent in 
clearing, deepening, and widening rents in the faces of cliffs, or sides 
of rocky declivities. What are locally called rakes, or narrow 
gulleys indenting precipices, and frequently ramifying or uniting, 
may be referred to original joints and vertical fractures in the rocks, 
afterwards enlarged by periodical torrents. But in many places the 
action of these torrents would appear to have been supplemental to 
ancient marine denudation; and the size of the delta of stones 
and gravel at the lower end of the rake will often approximately 
determine how much of the excavation is due to running water 
since the emergence of the land. In the case of some large rakes, 
moreover, blocks of rock have apparently been disentangled and 
carried down in a way which cannot be well explained without 
having recourse to oceanic agency; and when we consider that 
rakes are now forming on many sea-coasts, as well as enlarging in 
mountainous countries, the most philosophical explanation would 
perhaps refer the larger rakes of the Lake-district to the funda- 
mental or wndermining action of the sea, followed by the degrading 
action of pluvial torrents. Rakes largest at the top we might sup- 
pose to be mainly pluvial—those largest at the bottom marine. The 
gable-ends of several hills in Cumberland are deeply indented with 
rakes. Those on the Great End may be seen from a distance of 
many miles. But as the Great End presents the appearance of 
a denuded promontory, the rakes may have been mainly formed 
while the base of the cliff was still undermined by tides and currents. 
On the face of Goat Crag, behind Castle Crag (see accompanying 
cut), there are several picturesque rakes.* 
Origin of Screes.—Scerees are the loose materials which lie seat- 
tered between the crest of a declivity and the bottom of a valley. 
They are often the outwashings of rakes, but generally the irregular 
down-crumblings of precipices or slopes. They may be divided into 
two kinds, which graduate into each other—screes consisting chiefly 
of boulders, and screes composed of small fragments, sand, or mud. 
We can scarcely err in mainly attributing the latter accumulations 
to atmospheric action; but the detached blocks and large stones 
which are often seen scattered along the base of precipices, would 
* Amongst the two largest rakes in Cumberland are Lady’s Rake, in Wallow 
Crag, near Keswick, and Lord’s Rake, on one side of Mickledoor Chasm, Scafell. 
The ascent of the latter is considered a great pedestrian feat. 
