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



In the old denudation then of north and western Cumberland, and 

 that of its former westerly extended land surface, we see the origin 

 of the erratic clays and granites of Furness. 



It now only remains to show their extreme northern point, and 

 their very limited eastern extension, over that district. Their alti- 

 tude I have not found to exceed that given in the '' North Lonsdale 

 Magazine," namely, 275 feet,' and it is impossible to think that laden 

 icebergs drifted by easterly currents, would not have deposited their 

 freight on more easterly ground, had the land been submerged 

 beyond, or much beyond that extent. For example, sink Black 

 Combe well under water; there would be no hindrance to their 

 passage over its northern shoulder, over the Ireleth slate hills, and 

 over Krkrigg-common, where not a pebble of granite exists. On the 

 contrary, it might seem that the mountain had given a slight westerly 

 deviation to the currents, as the passage indicated would have been 

 straighter. 



The most northerly point at which the pebbles take Lancashire 

 ground (within the salt-marsh) is close below a farm called Greens- 

 Gow, three miles south of Soutergate, and less than half a mile north 

 of Scale Haws — my 1866 point of ascent. This is in an E.S.E. direc- 

 tion from Hodbarrow Point, from which Greenscow is now separated 

 by the full breadth of the present estuary, 2^ miles. From this 

 place, where no profile is exhibited available for a section, they are 

 seen to mingle very sparingly in the loose debris of the green slates, 

 where that is shown in the roadside cutting. This road, a new one, 

 gradually rises and passes along the face of the Greenscow Crags, on 

 the southern flanks of High Haume. The granites may be extracted, 

 here one and there one, both red and white, up to Low Haume,'^ be- 

 tween 250 and 275 feet elevation. I have examined the higher 

 ground bordering the road for them, but without success. They are 

 again seen in the deposits near to Elliscales, where they are more 

 difficult of removal.^ At St. Mary's Bank, Dalton, three quarters of 

 a mile directly south of the latter place, there is a thick bed of (ap- 

 parently) river gravel, exposed in a stable yard near the Cemetery. 

 Here there are no granites, nor are there any to be found on the 

 lands still further south. 



These investigations, renewed at intervals since 1866, enable me 



^ It may be a qaiestion whether the true iceberg deposit reaches more than 

 half that height. 



2 At Low Haume, there is, abutting against the limestone of Housethwaite hill, a 

 curious mass of cemented angular limestone pebbles, containing Carboniferous lime- 

 stone fossils. This was first seen by me many years ago. Mr. Talbot Aveline calls 

 it cemented screes. In hand-specimens it resembles the breccia of St. Helens, on the 

 south of the same hill ; and also that at Dalton ; both referred by Sir R, I. 

 Murchison and Prof. Harkness to Lower Permian strata. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 

 Lend., vol. XX., 1864. In places, the Low Haume crab-rock coats the hill-side in 

 varying thickness ; but to the east or north-east, the limestone appears to have been 

 quarried back at some time, leaving the breccia standing in great natural buttresses, 

 twelve yards high. 



^ There are no boulders, properly so called, along this road. I observed two cobble 

 etones : one, near Greenscow, on low ground, might measure 7 or 8 inches in diameter; 

 the other, built into a waU at Low Haume, woijdd measure less. 



