1869*] MACKINTOSH LANCASHIRE AND CITMBERLAND DEIPTS. 415 



have come from a less distance than Eskdale, would seem to favour 

 the idea of floating ice ; for while it is generally admitted that the 

 bulk of land-glacial drift must be local, it is very improbable that a 

 flow of land-ice from Eskdale, on reaching what is now the bed of 

 the Irish Sea, should have turned round in the direction of Black- 

 pool ; and this improbability will still further appear when we take 

 into consideration the fact that the primary striation of North- 

 west Lancashire is from north to south, or from north-north-east to 

 south-south-west (see sequel). 



3. Drifts between Lancaster and Carneorth. 



Between Blackpool, Preston, and Lancaster the country is more 

 or less covered with drift, which I had little opportunity of examin- 

 ing ; and between the valley of the Lune and Carnforth my oppor- 

 tunities of observation were more limited than in the three other 

 districts noticed in this paper. On walking from Lancaster to Carn- 

 forth one cannot fail to be struck with the enormous mass of drift 

 which almost everywhere conceals the solid crust of the earth. Its 

 thickness in many places cannot be less than 200 or perhaps 300 

 feet. Its surface is very undulating, in some places consisting of 

 knolls hke a flattened form of esker, in others presenting the appear- 

 ance of parallel drumlins *, though on minute inspection it is seen that 

 the latter are not suiflciently parallel or regular to be correlated with 

 the drumlins of Ireland. I was unable to see any exposure of drift 

 in which the line of contact between two distinct deposits could be 

 clearly made out. At Hest Bank I fancied that the sea-cliff showed 

 an indistinct line of demarcation between a hard Lower and a com- 

 paratively yielding Upper Boulder-clay, but could not make sure of 

 the existence of more than one formation, and that apparently Lower 

 Boulder-clay. 



The two fine sections at Hest Bank consist of sea-cliifs cutting 

 across drift-knolls. The one furthest from the railway station is 

 about 50 feet in height. The clay is full of stones, of sizes varying 

 from small pebbles up to very large boulders of limestone. They are 

 much striated, and often rounded only on one side. Between here 

 and Morecambe, and along the beach at Morecambe, large stones are 

 generally found in groups, which might merely indicate the places 

 where the Boulder- clay came to the surface, were it not that where 

 this formation runs continuously for great distances along the coast 

 the large boulders occur, with few exceptions, in groups — a circum- 

 stance which, if well established, would indicate their having been 

 dropped by floating ice rather than left by land-ice f. 



On the hill near Lancaster, called Lancaster Moor, a hard reddish 

 sandy clay, very much resembling lower Boulder- clay in its structure, 

 may be seen resting on a surface of millstone grit which has been 

 glaciated either towards or from the valley of the Lune, in my 



* The Rev. M. H. Close (see Journ. Hoy. GreoL Soc. Ireland, vol. i. part 3) be- 

 lieves that the parallel ridges called drumlins were accumulated under land-ice. 



t In Staffordshire, Shropshire, &c. the boulders of granite, porphyry, and 

 other far-transported rocks are generally found in groups. 



