328 Miss E. Hodgson — The Granite-drift of Furness. 



leader" style will not do in this age, for it does not permit of tliat 

 perfect independence of thought absolutely requisite to insure success 

 in the pursuit of science. 



The study of science is the search after truth, but in this study the 

 persevering and conscientious worker, although sure to attain good 

 results in the end, must always bear in mind that his results, even 

 when proved to be truths, are still only fragments of the whole truth, 

 and that he therefore should guard himself against over-rating their 

 value, i.e., the extent of their application ; since this can only be 

 correctly estimated when these fragments have been found to fit 

 accurately into their true place in the grand plan of Nature. 



V. — ^The Granite-drift of Furness. 



By Miss E. Hodgson. 



(PLATE XV.) 



THE dispersion of debris from the rocks of the Lake district 

 towards the midland counties, is an old and well established 

 fact. Between 1820 and 1850, we find it occupying the attention of 

 such authors as Sedgwick, Phillips, Murehison, Agassiz, Buckland, 

 Binney, Hopkins, and Mantell; and the present day observer may 

 well be cautious in attempting to improve upon their initiatory 

 labours. Special attention appears to have been directed to eastern 

 and south-eastern lines of transport. The Shap granite was followed 

 to every outpost ; and the Cumberland erratics in the South Lanca- 

 shire and Cheshire plains — and remoter valleys and uplands — 

 received recognition in exhaustive memoirs. 



The following notices are what immediately refer to North Lanca- 

 shire, and the home-tracts of west, north-west and north Cumber- 

 land. 



Professor Sedgwick remarks that, — " the plain bordering the hilly 

 region on the north presents boulders and pebbles that have been 

 transported across the Solway from Dumfriesshire : — in the trans- 

 ported rubbish capping a hill near Hayton Castle, four miles north- 

 east of Maryport, there are large granite boulders resembling the 

 rocks of the Criffel : — from St. Bees Head to the southern extremity 

 of Cumberland, the coast region is covered by transported detritus 

 of granite, porphyry, and greenstone, some of large size : — in Low 

 Furness, similar phenomena are observable : — large blocks derived 

 from the green-slate district are found on the granite hills between 

 Bootle and Eskdale : — the syenite blocks of Carrock Fell can be 

 traced through the valleys, and over the hills of the mid region, to 

 the very foot of the parent rock."^ 



Dr. Buckland records "a remarkable assemblage of boulders of 

 Criffel granite at Shawkbeck, between Carlisle and Cockermouth," 

 and which he conceives may have been transported across the Solway 

 Firth on floating masses of ice.^ 



* De la Beche's Geological Manual, 1833. Extract from Professor Sedgwick's 

 Paper in Ann. Phil., 1825. 



* Proc. Geol. Soc. London, 1840. 



