Glacier Moraines in Cumberland and Westmorland. 199 



valley, as the mammilated rocks, perched blocks, and ice 

 markings, which can be clearly traced at many prominent 

 points, abundantly prove ; and they appear to have gradually 

 receded, probably as our climate became warmer, until at 

 length they had dwindled down to the comparatively small 

 size indicated by the moraines now in almost perfect con- 

 dition at the head of the valley, immediately under Bowfell. 



Proceeding through Rosset Gill, on the path to Wastdale, 

 over to the head of Borrowdale, we see Angle Tarn, a very 

 remarkable lake, under a lofty range of precipitous rocks, 

 forming one of the huge shoulders of Bowfell. 



Professor Ramsay, in his lectures on physical geology, 

 describes some lakes on the Italian side of the Alps, which 

 were formed by the scooping out powers of glaciers, the 

 waters being dammed up by their terminal moraines, and he 

 adds, "there are several among the mountains of Wales, 

 but whether there are any in Cumberland, I do not know," 

 evidently surmising the existence of such. It is interesting, 

 therefore, to find in Angle Tarn a perfect example of this 

 class of lake. The glacier by which it was formed had 

 poured over the lofty precipice above, and deposited the 

 moraine so as to form the lake just as we now find it. The 

 embankment by which the waters are pent in consists of a 

 series of rounded knolls, exactly like the Langdale moraines, 

 the lake gradually shelving in, at first very shallow, until it 

 attains a great depth at the foot of the precipices at its head. 



A little further on is another similar example, at the 

 head of Long Strathdale, where another tarn has evidently 

 existed, but the waters have burst through the moraine 

 embankment, and left a swampy marsh behind. The rocks 

 which are thus left bare by the departed waters cover a 

 considerable area, and are very remarkable instances of 

 glacial action, being much striated and polished. 



The streams which flow from this point and from 

 Angle Tarn are tributaries to the River Derwent and, with 



