T. V. Holmes—On Eskers or Kames. 439 
hitherto met with any esker-like ridges in East Anglia. As eskers 
are far more numerous and varied in Cumberland than in Norfolk, 
I will first give some description of those of Cumberland and after- 
wards refer to the ridges of Norfolk. 
Eskers may be defined as ridges and mounds of gravel and sand 
which owe their existence and, in the main, their shape, to their 
having been heaved up by the action of water in the positions in 
which they are now seen. Of course they often owe something to 
circumdenudation, but a good section across an esker ridge contrasts 
in the most striking way with one across a mere gravel outlier. 
For whereas the latter would show nearly horizontal bedding, or a 
slight tendency to a basin shape, an esker has evidently been heaped 
up as a bar or sandbank is heaped up at the mouth of a river, the 
beds having a general dip from the centre towards the sides. A 
good illustration of an esker section is given in Prof. A. H. Green’s 
“Geology for Students,” 2nd edit. p. 472. 
In Cumberland, north of the lake country, eskers are very common 
in particular spots, though many square miles of country are entirely 
devoid of them. Perhaps the most striking peculiarity of eskers is 
their irregular and unaccountable distribution. They may be seen 
in Cumberland at any height above the sea below 800 feet ; possibly 
they may be found still higher. In one spot they may make the 
highest ground within a radius of two or three miles from their 
centre, in another, six or seven miles away, they are absent from the 
top of a plateau and present in the valleys around it. While ina 
third place, at no great distance, they may abound at much greater 
heights than exist in the other two areas, and be found indifferently 
on hill and in valley. In two places they are more especially con- 
centrated, the neighbourhood of Brampton, and the country about 
midway between Abbey Townand Allonby. The first-named locality 
is from eight to ten miles eastward of Carlisle, the second about 
sixteen miles W.S.W. of that city. They abound on the Scottish 
side of the Solway about Cummertrees and north of the town of 
Dumfries. In Cumberland the eskers about Brampton and between 
Abbey Town and Allonby form compact areas of ground. Hlsewhere 
there may be esker mounds and ridges, but each mound or ridge is 
an outlying patch. But in the two places mentioned a great number 
of these ridges and mounds are connected together by sand and 
gravel of similar character. 
The Brampton esker tract is the higher and larger of the two, 
and lies mainly between 300 ft. and 700 ft. above the sea. Between 
How Mill and Brampton Stations the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway 
traverses this esker district, and so does the branch line to Brampton 
town. The Mote Hill is an esker, and eskers surround the little 
lake called Talkin Tarn. Peaty flats may be seen here and there 
enclosed by esker mounds. ‘This esker tract dies away as a compact 
area about Naworth in the valley of the Irthing, on the north, and 
near Cumwhitton towards the Hden Valley, on the south. But 
isolated mounds may be seen here and there some miles above 
Naworth in the valley of the Irthing, and south of Cumwhitton in 
