C. E. de Ranee — Glaciations, of the Lake District. Ill 



edge, making rock basins in the upland district, smoothing the rocks 

 of the cliff, and grinding and deepening those of the valleys. 



Wast Water to Buttermere. — Leaving Wasdale Head by Mosedale, 

 that valley is seen to be entirely shut in by the steep rocky hills of Eed 

 Pike, the Pillar, Looking Stead, and Kirk Fell. Through this ridge 

 runs the east and west water-shed, separating the brooks that flow 

 north into Ennerdale from those that flow south into Wasdale. One 

 of the latter forms a spring in the Black Sale Pass ; in this Col, and 

 all along the course of the stream, patches of moraine matter occur, 

 and at the point where the path from Wasdale crosses the stream, 

 the rock is slightly rounded; and this indeed is the case with the 

 hill Looking Stead itself, over whose summit the ice appears to 

 have fairly passed during the first glaciation. But the rounding in 

 the brook-course, and in that of Black Sale, would appear to have 

 been caused by small glaciers in the period succeeding submergence, 

 which, uniting at the bottom of Mosedale, scooped out the old 

 moraines and the possible Marine Drift with which they were 

 covered ; and in their retreat left their own small moraines at the 

 bottom of the valley, which have since been much denuded away 

 by stream-action, before the commencement of which they appear 

 to have extended across the valley, damming up the water, and 

 forming a small lake behind. 



Looking up the Liza Valley from the hill Looking Stead (2,058 

 feet) two brooks are seen to join a little above the point where the 

 footpath to Scarf G-ap crosses the Liza, together forming that stream. 

 In the fork between these brooks a sloping hill comes down from 

 Green Gable ; the surface of this slope especially near its lower end, 

 is covered by numerous conical moraine mounds, resembling, when 

 viewed from this height, a series of gigantic ant-hills. They also 

 occur below the base of the slope ; on both sides of the Liza, especi- 

 allj on the north bank, east of the point where the footpath to Scarf 

 Gap cuts the 900 feet Ordnance contour line, occurring on the slope 

 at least as high as 1,250 feet, being formed by a gradually retreating 

 glacier in the last glaciation. At a similar level traces of glacial 

 rubbish occur immediately below the Gap, formed probably by a 

 small glacier, which, fed by ice flowing off High Crag and Warn- 

 scale, passed over the pass in two directions, towards the Liza and 

 towards Buttermere. Some of the moraine heaps in the former 

 valley, especially on the south bank, just behind the Sheep-pens, 

 are elongated ridges rather than conical mounds, with long axes, 

 running in a W.N.W. direction, with a sharp dividing edge, like 

 the ridge of a gable roof; the slope to the right and left (angle of 

 repose ?) being 38°, those of the ridge being as shown in the 

 following sketch. Fig. 1. 



The south bank of Buttermere, below High Stile and High Crag, 

 shows traces of a double glaciation, the rocks being rounded and 

 scored in a primary direction from S.E. to E".W., or in the line of 

 the valley ; and in a secondary, from S.W. to N.E., wherever the 

 small glaciers of the second period came down the indentations in 

 the hill's side now occupied by brooks, one of which flows through 



