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



at a heiglit of 800 feet above the sea, there are numerous fragments 

 of porphyry, more or less tesselated with distinct crystals of felspar, 

 which could only have been floated from the Caldbeck Fells (?) 

 during a deep submergence of the land. The largest surface-boulder 

 I have seen in the district under notice is near Bole or Bothel. It 

 is apparently a kind of metamorphosed conglomerate, and breccia, 

 not unlike what I have seen in Borrowdale, though it may have 

 come from Binsey Crag, about three miles to the S.E. It measures 

 18 X 9 X 9 feet. 



From Cockermouth to Loweswater. — To make sure that the syenitic 

 boulders scattered over the country, from Lamplugh to the north of 

 Cockermouth, and westward to a considerable distance, came from 

 the high ground above Crummock Water and Buttermere, I walked 

 to Loweswater from the N. W., and returned through the Vale of 

 Lorton. I ascertained that the light grey and pinkish syenite must 

 have come chiefly through the Loweswater gap, and that the reddish 

 syenite, found abundantly about Cockermouth, must have come down 

 the Vale of Lorton, But I was farther rewarded by the discovery 

 of a drift-deposit, which seemed to be a connecting link between 

 the pinel of the mountains and the reddish-brown Boulder-clay of 

 the sea-coast. On a watershed between Mosser and Loweswater, 

 there is a large flat plateau of Boulder-clay running into a cwm 

 under Low Fell, and thinning out along the valley to the N. and 

 down the slope to the S. It contains Skiddaw slate, apparently 

 metamorphosed or baked slate, the latter very much rubbed and 

 striated, grey porphyry, quartz, and light-grey syenite. The plateau 

 lies about 400 feet below the summit of Low Fell, and about 400 feet 

 above the level of Loweswater. It occupies a position in which it 

 could never have been deposited, excepting by the agency of water 

 and floating ice. This will appear from the sections, Figs. 23 and 

 24 in PL XXV. 



From Cockermouth to Lorton. — The principal objects of interest 

 near Lorton are the sand and gravel knolls on the roadside. A 

 good section of the largest knoU, which is about 100 feet high, may 

 be seen in a pit close to the road. The sand and gravel is ex- 

 tensively false-bedded, in a way that oceanic currents will alone 

 explain. This knoll was once regarded as a striking specimen of a 

 terminal moraine, and a scientific gentleman of the neighbourhood, 

 who viewed it in this light, seemed somewhat vexed when I tried to 

 convince him that it was a marine sand-bank (PL XXV., Fig. 26). 



Sea- Coast at Workington. — The sea has exposed an extensive cliff- 

 section of reddish-brown Boulder-clay. It is very hard, and con- 

 tains many small stones, but very few boulders make their appear- 

 ance above high water-mark. At its base, and on the adjacent 

 beach, there are thousands of large boulders of several kinds of 

 granite, dark whinstone, porphyry, breccia, sandstone, limestone, red 

 syenite, etc. The clay is stratified (Plate XXV., Fig. 28), and shows 

 rude indications of false-bedding. It is likewise vertically fractured. 

 It is covered with thin beds of sand, surmounted by red loamy clay, 

 with few stones. The clay contains patches of sand, as represented 



