64 [Proc- B. N. F. C, 



Langdale Pike was given, proving that this peak, probably 

 rising above the surface of the ice, had been exposed to another 

 class of influences, riven asunder by the frost, and shattered by 

 the lightning. A section to a scale of six inches to the mile 

 was shown from this point through Codale Tarn, Easedale 

 Tarn, Grasmere, Loughrigg Fell, and Windermere, which 

 showed what extremely shallow hollows the lakes really formed 

 when contrasted with the height of the hills on each side, and 

 the probable thickness of the ice, which, judging by the traces 

 it has left, may have been in some places from two to three 

 thousand feet thick. Easedale Tarn and Grasmere were 

 instanced as special cases of ice excavation, an ice-ground hill 

 in each case having blocked the flow of ice, and caused an 

 immense pressure just where the tarn and lake now are. 

 Windermere was cited as the chief difficulty in the way of 

 accepting this theory. It was shown, however, that the drain- 

 age of an area of fifty square miles of high ground united at 

 the head of the lake, and that, given a sufficient snowfall, there 

 was nothing to hinder the ice from having flowed even farther, 

 provided there were banks on each side high enough to retain 

 it, it was entirely a question of an adequate supply from the 

 feeding grounds above. The present rainfall of that district is 

 sometimes over two hundred inches per annum, or more than 

 five times the average of Belfast, and may, during the glacial 

 period, have been even larger. The author gave his experience 

 in the Hawes Water and Kentmere districts, and stated, as the 

 result of personal examination, that Blea Water, Small Water, 

 the Kentmere Reservoir, and two other lakes now drained, in 

 that valley, were all basins excavated out of the solid rock by 

 the action of the ice. 



The author referred in addition to the following of the 



smaller lakes and tarns he had visited and examined, and gave 



a summary of their position and probable origin : — 



Grasmere lies at the union of several long and deep valleys — a 



mountain blocks the lower end of the lake, and turns the 



river which issues from it off at a right angle. 



