Miss E. Hodgson — -The Granite'drift of Furness. 335 



It is not, however, to the present waters of either sea or river 

 that I ara restricted in an attempt to prove remoter derivation than 

 the south-western valleys for the Fismess erratics. They are in- 

 adequate to the task ; for altho-ugh granite pebbles in the north of 

 Morecambe certainly evidence a " travelling of beach," yet 18 or 

 20 miles in a quiet estuary with very few rocks, can be nothing in 

 comparison with nearly 100 miles of sea coast, part of it rock-bound. 

 As in the river, so upon the beach ; the waters feed on the old land- 

 deposits, and rarely perhaps convey them so far from their starting 

 place as at first sight might be imagined. 



The Caldew pebbles have every significance when taken in con- 

 nection with perpetual snow-fields and glaciers, of which they un- 

 doubtedly are some af the reli<3s. The Brandy-gill granite, for 

 instance, that in the present stream is rarely seen lower than 

 Dalston, was picked up by my sister in Morecambe, between Bardsea 

 and Ulverston, 140 miles from its parent rock. Mr. Wright, of 

 Great Eussell Street, labels this : — " Granite, containing a great 

 quantity of felspar. Brandy-gill, Carrock ;" and it is worthy of note, 

 that it is the very same specimen for which Mr. Joseph Graham 

 gave that locality in 1866.^ The mica in both this and the Caldew 

 pebble, is a beautiful pearly white ; the preponderance of quartz in 

 the one and of felspar in the other appearing to constitute the main 

 difference. As Mr. Wright is thoroughly well acquainted with the 

 Carrock rocks and minerals, and with the Brandy -gill locality, no 

 reasonable doubt can remain as to the correct identification of this 

 interesting traveller. 



Among other granite debris in the Caldew, that of Skiddaw may 

 easily be recognized, especially sheddings from the compact kind of 

 rock in the river's bed near Mosedale. Mr. Otley notices it thus :— 

 "A rock of granite, composed of quartz, white felspar, and black 

 mica, may be seen denuded in the bed of the river Caldew, on the 

 north-east side of Skiddaw," ^ In some of the detritus sent me, the 

 colour is darker, with a tendency to brownness on the faces of joints, 

 as if from decomposition or segregation af some chemical coui- 

 stituent. 



Sufficient may have been adduced to show that this granitic tract 

 has undergone denudation in the first place towards the north ; and 

 then, the very best evidence perhaps of an old divergence west- 

 ward, at a point 2654 feet below the greatest altitudes, lies in the 

 fact^ that numerous huge boulders of Carrock syenite are scattered 

 about Kosley, three miles out of the river course, and 400 feet above 

 the present sea-level. It is possible that all traces of actual glacier 

 descent into the Solway may now be covered up on the Cumberland 

 side ; but as glaciers in the Alps fall 4000 feet below the line of 

 perpetual snow, surely, even after allowing for subsequent atmo- 

 spheric waste and lowering of the heights, the intervening vertical 

 depth between these heights and the present sea-line, is not too greai 



^ See my paper in the North Lonsdale Magazine, p. 235. 

 ' Otley' 8 Guide to the Lakes, p. 145. 

 2 On the authority of Mr. J. Eccleston. 



