114 C. E. de Ranee — G lactations of the Lake District. 



measure due to moraine matter left by the first glaciation, possibly 

 re-arranged at the surface by marine action. 



The glaciers of the second age, though not so often taking the 

 form of a small ice-sheet as those of the first, would appear to have 

 been both large and powerful, dwindling and retreating mile by 

 mile as the climate ameliorated ; the perpetual snow-line gradually 

 rising and rising, until at last it left the highest peak of Sea Fell, and 

 the last glacier melted away. In most of the valleys of the Lake 

 District traces of these retreating glaciers may be seen, tier above 

 tier of moraine mounds stretching across the valley, becoming smaller 

 and more insignificant as the source of the valley is neared. Some 

 of these mounds occur in that of Longstrath, commencing (in a dis- 

 tinct form) at a point a little above the spot where the Beck receives 

 the second brook on the east bank (Ordnance one inch Map, 98, 

 North-west), counting from the north; higher up in the valley, the 

 mounds become very numerous, some of them being from 20 to 40 

 feet in height, others being cut in two by the stream between the 

 third and fourth brook running into it. Below High White Stone 

 (2,500 feet) there are two tiers of these mounds, one above the other, 

 running in the direction of the valley, the higher reaching nearly to 

 the 1,000 feet contour, or to a height of 300 feet above the Beck. 

 Still higher up the valley, especially on the north side, numerous 

 mounds also occur at the foot of the slope. At one point lower 

 down, on the east side of the Beck, between the first and second 

 brooks, at a height of 900 feet, the rock is rounded and scratched 

 directly upwards (E.), which must have been produced by ice 

 pouring over the edge from the comparative table-land above, 

 which is a continuation of that high ground intervening between 

 the gorges of Borrodale and Thirlmere, already alluded to as 

 having been probably covered with ice during the first glaciation, 

 and to a less extent during the second. This undulating ridge is 

 continued through High White Stones, until it terminates in Lang- 

 dale Pikes, the ground being sufficiently flat to have received a thick 

 covering of peat during the cold, moist, continental period im- 

 mediately succeeding the Glacial epoch. From this peat-covered 

 undulating plain rise several eminences ; amongst them. Sergeant 

 Man (2,414 feet), in the side of which rises the brook that supplies 

 Stickle Tarn (1,540 feet), which lake, as shown by Prof. Hull, F.R.S., 

 in 1860,^ is dammed up by a moraine, which must have been formed 

 by a glacier flowing down the valley from Sergeant Man, which 

 again points to the principal source of ice being in the upland plain. 

 Indeed I found that the whole of the Col called the Stake Pass is 

 covered with moraine heaps of small glaciers, left in the retreat 

 toward the peaks, on the last amelioration of climate ; many of these 

 mounds are covered by nearly 20 feet of peat. The moraine of 

 Stickle Tarn, as stated by Prof. Hull, has never been touched by the 

 sea; and as I have strong reason to believe that these mounds were 

 formed by the glaciers of the first period during their retreat, in 

 consequence of the amelioration of climate which took place in the 

 ^ Edin. New. Phil. Journ., vol. xi., new series, 1860. 



