Glacier Morahies in Cumberland and Westmorland. 197 



they would take so as to drop the granite boulders where 

 they are now found. 



This, and the district at the head of Eskdale, are those 

 to which the writer has devoted more particular attention, 

 and which form the subject of the following notes : — 



The highest mountain in the Lake District is Scawfell 

 Pike (3,210 feet), and, separated from it only by a narrow 

 valley, is Bowfell (2,960 feet). These two noble hills form 

 the central nucleus of the mountains of Cumberland, from 

 which radiate the valleys of Wastdale, Langdale, Borrow- 

 dale, Moasdale, Eskdale, and the Vale of Duddon ; and 

 here, as might be expected, we have the evidences of 

 glacier action in a very marked degree. 



The conformation of the upper parts of Scawfell is not 

 such as to fit it for the accumulation of snow and ice, for 

 the formation of glaciers ; on every side it is precipitous, 

 and still bears the marks of plutonic rather than glacial 

 action, in its frowning rents and deep black precipices, and 

 its screes over Wastwater. 



Its lordly neighbour, Bowfell, has a very different con- 

 formation, its huge shoulders fitting it for a great gathering 

 ground, exactly suited to the aggregation of snow and ice, 

 which would gather on its summits and flow over its 

 shoulders into the deep valleys below. 



The flanks of Bowfell are everywhere scored and 

 polished by glacial action, the porphyry and greenstone of 

 which they are composed retaining the markings most 

 clearly, so that one may almost trace the course taken by 

 the ice. The three summits of Bowfell are a piled mass of 

 huge, unworn rocks, angular and weathered, in strong 

 contrast to its worn sides. Between the first and second 

 summits there is a deep rent, and in the deepest part of the 

 hollow there is a strong vein of hematite ore, the ground 

 being of a deep-red colour. Similar veins are visible in 

 several of the neighbouring hills, and especially on the pike 



