Correspondence — G. S. Wollasfon. 143 



part of England, perhaps some of the authors of these communica- 

 tions may feel inclined to refer to the observations I have recorded ; 

 and I only regret that all my spare copies have long since been 

 used up. 



Geological Survey Office, Dublin, Edward Hull. 



16 th February, 1871. 



GLACIATION OF THE LAKE-DISTRICT. 



Sir, — Allow me to make a few more remarks on the question of 

 the glaciation of these dales — I think they will be my last. 



Let not Mr. Mackintosh suppose that Mr. Eutley and I have com- 

 bined to make out a case of " The Queen v. Mackintosh." I differ 

 from them both. A friend of mine, accustomed to the aiguilles and 

 horns of the Alps, remarked that our hills looked like great heaps 

 of rubbish shot out of a cart; and "a distinguished personage" once 

 said to me with characteristic vehemence — " The whole of Cumber- 

 land is one vast rocJie moutonnee." 



Is not this the result we should expect from a thick sheet of ice 

 moving across the whole country, leaving its marks in boulders and 

 glaciated rocks near the Tarns of Busco at a height of 2,300 feet, in 

 scratches across the water-shed between Grasmere and Loughrigg 

 Tarn, in boulders on Silver How, in scratches across the water-sheds 

 of Kentmere and Long Sleddale, and finally, as Mr. Croll suggests, 

 in the erratics of Stainmoor ? 



If, as the climate grew warmer, this sheet of ice shrank into 

 glaciers of the Alpine type, should we not then have such scratchings 

 and roundings as we find in the bottoms and along the sides of the 

 dales ? 



These scratches in the valleys would then be more recent than 

 those across the water-sheds. 



I do not understand how the want of parallelism in some of the 

 scratches is any bar to our supposing them to be the product of 

 land-ice. "When two ice-currents meet, the stronger will deflect the 

 course of the weaker; and if its strength vary ever so little, ac- 

 cording to the season, so also will the direction of the scratches. 



Let not Mr. Mackintosh say : 



" Proveniebant oratores novi, stulti adolescentuli." 

 I speak only of what I have seen in the last three years in the val- 

 leys reaching from Little Langdale to Long Sleddale, and in the 

 Green Slate area. The rest of his paper I leave to those who know 

 the country he treats of. 



Geological Survey, Grasmere, Geo. Hyde Wollaston 



16th February, 1861. 



THE SUPPOSED THERMAL SPRINGS IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE. 



Sir, — The explanation which the Eev. 0. Fisher suggests as to 

 the cause of the heated water in the fen wells, to which I called 

 attention at Liverpool, is that which, when I first heard of the cir- 

 cumstance, occurred to my own mind. 



I am quite disposed to accept it, if it can be made to square with 

 the facts, as I confess I am unable satisfactorily to explain the 



