Bonney — Glaciers in the English Lakes. 293 



the glacier, extendiBg, I think, not less than 400 or 500 feet 

 up the hill-sides. Near a farm-house, about half a mile from 

 Grange, are some scratched and rounded blocks, with several hlocs 

 •perches. On one of the former, a smoothed boss of slate, by the 

 road side, the glacial strica may be seen arranged in parallel flutings 

 pointing down the A^alley, These are crossed at an angle of about 

 45° by the cleavage planes, and the whole mass is traversed by two 

 systems of joints, which intersect one another at about the same 

 angle. 



The soft slate of Skiddaw is unfavourable to preserving marks of 

 glacial action, and, besides this, its southern face is too steep to 

 have allowed of any great accumulation of snow. The ice-stream 

 from the Derwent Valley would probably sweep under its cliffs, 

 then no doubt streaked with couloirs of snow, towards Bassen- 

 thwaite. The glacier, indeed, may possibly have divided, and an 

 offshoot have extended some distance up the Greta, where it may 

 have met the ice-stream from the vale of St. John. Near to 

 Threlkeld station I saw, when leaving the district, a number of large 

 blocks scattered over the slopes adjoining the railway, which, I 

 think, could only have been deposited by means of ice. They may, 

 perhaps, denote the position of the terminal moraine of the glacier 

 which, after passing over Thirlmere, descended the vale of St. John. 



These are all the notes which I was able to gather during my 

 stay in the Lakes, but I have little doubt that a more careful ex- 

 amination would make it possible to map out approximately the 

 glaciers which once filled the greater part of many valleys in 

 the mountain districts of Cumberland and Westmoreland. 



III. — ^The Terraces of the Chalk Downs. 

 By G. Poulett Scrope, Esq., M.P., F.E.S., F.G.S., etc. 



ME. MACKINTOSH (Vol. HI., p. 69, and p. 155, of the Geol. 

 Mag.) adduces the preservation of numerous terraces on the 

 hill-^ides in the Cretaceous districts of ' Wilts, and Dorset,' as " evi- 

 dence of limited subaerial denudation since those terraces were 

 formed," for that they are " raised sea-beaches," he says, admits of 

 no doubt. 



I venture to say that a more preposterous idea has seldom been 

 started for the confusion of geologists. 



Being a Wiltshireman I am well acquainted with these terraces, 

 which are not confined to the Chalk -hills, but are found also among 

 the Oolitic Cotswolds, and many other formations, where the hill- 

 slopes and the nature of the subsoil are favorable to their formation. 

 And I have no hesitation in declaring them without exception of 

 artificial origin, worn by the plough, at a time when these slopes 

 were, if they are not still, under arable cultivation. 



I had supposed this to be the generally received opinion, and, as 

 such, hardly worth sustaining by argument, until the doctrine of 



