B. Mackintosh— The Drifts of the Lake District. 309 



than Milnthorpe, the ridges are wonder- 

 fully parallel, and point, as already stated, 

 N.K.E. It is certain that many of these 

 ridges haA'-e rocky nuclei, and that many 

 at least of these nuclei ran in the above 

 direction before the Drift period is pro- 

 bable from its near coincidence with the 

 larger axes of Benson Knott (1035 feet), 

 New Hutton ridge (1097 feet), etc. The 

 parallel drift-ridges vary in height from 

 20 to 30 feet near Burton Bail way Station 

 to more than 100 feet near Milnthorpe, 

 and in the area where their parallelism 

 is best defined between Farlton Knott 

 and Oxenholme. As a general rule, the 

 more northerly ridges consist chiefly of 

 Boulder-claj^ which (as between Oxen- 

 holme and Low Gill) rests on alternately 

 jagged and glaciated rock-surfaces, but 

 their shape has been completed, and their 

 final direction given by an addition of 

 gravel and sand. About Oxenholme 

 Station, a great part, if not the whole, 

 of some of the ridges is made up of strati- 

 fied gravel and sand, and this remark 

 applies more or less to the ridges further 

 E. and S. The gravel in many instances 

 is well rounded, in others subangular. 

 Between Milnthorpe, Burton, and Cam- 

 forth, where I have more particularly 

 examined them, the ridges, so far as can 

 be seen, are all sand and gravel, with 

 subordinate beds of red loam or loamy 

 clay. I have been assured that, near Miln- 

 thorpe, the ridges, at some depth beneath 

 the surface, contain a great thickness of 

 sand. The low oblong knolls rising out 

 of the peaty and marshy flat stretching W. 

 and S. from Burton Station are of the 

 same character as those which rise to a 

 greater height in the neighbourhood. The 

 hollows around these knolls were probably 

 once occupied by a lake which gradually 

 became filled up until conditions favour- 

 able to the growth of peat originated. 

 But the knolls are distinct in shape, com- 

 position, position, and magnitude, from 

 any deposits to which a small (or even 

 a large) lake could ever have given 

 rise, and are evidently a low-lying con- 



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