Its Bearing on Glacial Geology. 15 
O. D., the moraine rising 20 feet above this. On the opposite side 
(left bank) there is a well developed terminal moraine truncated by 
the river, and upon it at a level of 345 feet above O. D. lay another 
Volcanic block 10 feet by 8 feet by 5 feet. 
A large quantity of morainic matter lies at the foot of Wast Water, 
and may be well seen while descending the footpath from Miterdale. 
I believe it to be a terminal moraine, but it has no doubt been laid 
down in water, as a section in a gravel-pit at the junction of the 
road to Strand shows a laminated book-leaf clay of a hematite-red 
colour, intercalated between a hard clayey buff Till and a current- 
bedded stony Till. The basin of Wast Water seems peculiarly free 
from Drift. 
Parr II. 
Early Glacial Conditions. 
The Glacial history of this district commences with an accumula- 
tion of snow, which increased until it covered the whole of. the 
mountains and valleys of Cumberland, giving birth to glaciers of 
considerable dimensions. My observations in other places have led 
me to believe that the land at this time stood at a much higher 
level relatively to the sea than at present, and that the Irish Sea 
was non-existant. Although the evidences of this are not, in my 
Opinion, as complete as are the records of later phases of the Glacial 
period, they are important. A system of Pre-Glacial valleys’ exists, 
and can, in fact, be traced in the Mersey and the Dee, and other 
rivers of the north-west of England, which could not have been 
excavated under present conditions of level. Again, there are no 
signs in any of the excavations made in connexion with sea works, 
docks, and rivers of the existence of beds holding a fauna older than 
that of the Glacial period. It is not, however, of this period I 
propose to treat, as I do not consider my observations in Eskdale 
throw any new light upon it. 
Dispersion of Eskdale Granite. 
To any one like myself who has seen boulders and pebbles of 
Eskdale granite in the Drift dispersed over hundreds of square miles 
of country far away from its origin and associated with evidences 
of intense glacial action, it is very striking to notice in the birth- 
place of the boulders so few signs of glacial action on the rock itself. 
It is true that rounded contours are to be observed on many of the 
granite bosses, but as a rule the surface of the granite is singularly 
jagged even under the Drift. The rock appears to have been torn 
up and dislodged in consequence of the system of jointing, in cubical 
masses, which have not been pushed along in the till upon certain 
planes but have rolled over and constantly changed their positions. 
The rock is also incapable of receiving fine strize and indents.’ 
1 Buried Valley of the Mersey. Proc. Liverpool Geol. Soc. 1872-73, pp. 42-65. 
2 Griesbach says that he entirely failed to discover glacial scratches in the moraines 
at the end of the Himalayan Glaciers. (Mem. Geol. Survey of India, vol. xxiii.) 
