448 -D. Mackintosh — Geology of the Lake-District. 



side, I have foiond the primary glaciation of rock-surfaoes almost 

 invariably pointing to between N. and N.N.W. At first ^ I was 

 led to regard this as the effect of a great flow of land-ice not 

 generated in the Lake District itself, but embracing the coun- 

 try in its progress southwards from an unknown source. But 

 after finding that the northern half of the Lake District was 

 glaciated chiefly from the S., S.W., or S.IL, without any great 

 persistence in a particular direction, and believing that the interior 

 of the country could never have sent off a sheet of land-ice 

 in a southerly direction capable of moving so uniformly and in- 

 dependently of hill and valley, I was driven back to the theory of 

 floating ice as the cause of the uniform primary glaciation of the 

 area between Long Sleddale and the Old Man, notwithstanding the 

 difficulties with which the theory is beset. In this area most of the 

 roches moutonnees could not have been smoothed by valley glaciers ; 

 and in the northern part of the Lake District, after observing the 

 direction of the glaciation, and looking back, one is often puzzled to 

 see where a glacier could have come from, even after making allow- 

 ance for deflections and windings. It is very common to find the 

 sides of valleys glaciated obliquely uphill, and bosses of rock with 

 their smoothly-rounded or upstream sides pointing to hills or cliffs. 

 The tops of steeply-sided hills of considerable height are likewise 

 often " moutonneed." In all such cases it seems more reasonable to 

 assume the agency of floating ice than to invest the interior of the 

 country with a power of originating and propelling ice-streams in- 

 compatible with its physical geography. 



The following notes, with the sections, (see Plates XXIV. and 

 XXV., and Explanation) will, it is believed, fiirnish facts and con- 

 siderations corroborative of the foregoing general observations : — 



From Coniston to Tilhertlnoaite and the Old Man. — ^At the mouth 

 of Tilberthwaite valley there is a plateau of drift which has been 

 breached through by the stream, or by a valley-glacier which 

 has left no traces of moraines excepting perhaps scattered loose 

 blocks. The sea, however, may have arranged this drift out of 

 matter furnished by a general covering of land-ice. Above this 

 drift, on the S.W. side of the valley, the rocks have been extensively 

 glaciated uphill, apparently from the north, or in a direction ob- 

 liquely crossing the mouth of the valley. Farther on, many sections 

 of hard pinel have been exposed. It often rests on glaciated rock- 

 surfaces — is full of stones, which sometimes occur in clusters or 

 pockets — and only occasionally contains large boulders. 



On walking up the Church Beck valley from Coniston, one first 

 encounters mounds of pinel and stratified sand and gravel, which 

 are probably moraine matter re-arranged by the sea. Before reach- 

 ing the Coniston Copper Works, on the right hand or N.E. slope of 

 the valley, a very extensive display of glaciated rock-surfaces may be 

 seen. The primary grooves run from N. to S., or obliquely down 

 the slope, and land-ice from the N. could only have produced them 

 after crossing the high ridge which rises between the Church Beck 

 1 See Scenery of England and Wales. 



