252 D. Mackintosh — Drifts of the Borders of the Lake-district. 



the sides of the ridge, between the river Bleng and Wastdale, is 

 covered with drift, consisting mainly of pinel, frequently overlain by 

 foxy-coloured loam. A great part of this ridge must always have 

 been beyond the reach of precipitated valley-glacial moraine-matter. 

 The boulders, many of which are very large, are chiefly bluish-grey 

 porphyry, probably from the high ground to the N.E., but in part, 

 possibly, from concealed rock in situ. On this ridge there are so 

 many glaciated boulders that I had no need to have recourse to the 

 expedient once recommended to me by a Yorkshireman, who, after 

 stating that there were no rounded and scratched stones in his neigh- 

 bourhood, advised me to go to an adjacent sandstone quarry, where 

 I could find plenty of square blocks which I could round and scratch 

 for myself ! 



Drifts and Glaciated BocTcs of Wastdale. — Between the neighbour- 

 hood of Gosforth and one-third of a mile W. of Strands, a fine-grained 

 felspathic rock rises through the drift in bosses. Thence to Wast- 

 water-foot, the rock is principally granilite, and this rock occupies a 

 great part of the space between Strands, Buckbarrow, and Greendale. 

 Near the lake it graduates northwards into a quartzo-felspathic rock. 



In the neighbourhood of Kidbeck and Gap, contorted gravelly 

 pinel, with stratified sand seams, and real typical pinel covered by 

 foxy-coloured loam, may here and there be seen. Great numbers of 

 surface blocks, both angular and rounded (as well as those imbedded), 

 strew the ground, and rise up the slope to the summit of the Moor 

 above Yewtree. At Gill, the pinel graduates downwards into rough 

 angular breccia. The latter and the coarse local limestone and sand- 

 stone debris previously mentioned may possibly represent the first 

 land-ice period. The stones and boulders about Gill are pink and 

 light grey granilite, and a dark grey porphyry. Farther on, flat 

 knolls of pinel, sometimes greyish-brown, run underneath the screes 

 or fallen debris, with a distinct line of demarcation. Between Green- 

 dale and Wastwater, there are many rocJies moutonnees, which have 

 been smoothed or glaciated chiefly from the E., sometimes E.S.E. 

 and E.N.E., in a few instances from the S., in all instances obliquely 

 or directly from the direction of the Screes escarpment. A glacier 

 from the N.E. moving along the valley could not have accomplished 

 this, either by its direct action or by a lateral process of grinding, as 

 the configuration of the ground would have enabled ice from the 

 N.E. to gain free access to what are now the jagged or lee sides of 

 the bosses.' The idea at first suggested itself that a great stream of 

 land-ice may once have tumbled over the Screes escarpment, and 

 smoothed the above rocks in its passage across the dale. Mr. de 

 Eance has expressed a similar idea (Geol. Mag. March, 1871), but 

 I do not think that it can be reconciled with an attentive considera- 

 tion of the physical geography of the district. The glaciation of 

 rock-surfaces directly or obliquely across valleys is in many parts of 

 the Lake District the general rule, and not the exception. Can it be 



1 Professor Phillips, some time ago, after a particular examination, came to the 

 conclusion that no glacier could ever have flowed along the whole length of Wastdale 

 (Geol. Mag. Vol. II. p. 513). 



