HOPKINS ON THE LAKE DISTRICT. 97 
extremity of the valley would be formed where the dislocation of the 
mass rendered it less able to resist the action of the waves. Ina 
similar manner the part of the valley included between a 0 and ¢ d 
would be formed during the absolute rise of the land, or relative de- 
pression of the sea through a space equal to the distance between 
those lines; and in the same manner the lower parts of the valley 
would be cut out by the action of the sea during successive periods of 
the elevation. While the finer particles would be transported to a 
distance, the coarser detritus would be deposited at some lower level 
on the side of the mountain, being carried lower and lower by succes- 
sive removals, so that in some cases the lower part of the valley might 
be cut out partly from the original rock and partly from the accu- 
mulated detritus at the foot of the elevation, and the greater the ac- 
cumulation of detritus by successive removals and additions, the more 
likely would it be that this should be the case. 
In the process above described, I have supposed the agency to be 
merely that of water acting like ordinary waves on a cliff at a point 
where a previous dislocation or any other cause has rendered it less 
able to resist their repeated action. But to these effects we must also 
add those of the great waves already described as taking place during 
the elevation of the district. It is to these waves that the transport 
of the smaller detritus, as well as that of large boulders, to the more 
distant localities, is to be attributed. 
§ Iceberg Theory. 
29. In many of those cases in which blocks of enormous magni- 
tude and sharp angular forms have been conveyed to great distances 
from their original sites, it seems highly probable that floating ice 
may have been the agent by which the transport has been effected : 
but in the case before us the evidence afforded by the blocks them- 
selves appears to me strongly opposed to this view of the subject. In 
the first place, there is no obvious reason why blocks thus conveyed 
from one place to another should have their surfaces rounded and 
polished; and therefore it would be probable that a considerable 
portion of them at least should retain their original angular outlines. 
And secondly, there is no reason why the largest blocks should always 
be conveyed to the shortest distances, or why those which have tra- 
velled farthest should be the most worn and rounded, since they could 
be subject to no attrition in the act of transport. We might fre- 
quently expect them, whether large or small, to be most numerous 
near their original site, and to decrease in number, but not necessarily 
in magnitude, as they should be more remote from it. These consi- 
derations appear to me to furnish the best tests for separating the 
effects of floating ice from those of currents. 
Now the blocks which I examined from Orton Fell to the top of 
Stammoor* appear (I believe without exception) to be highly 
polished, and must therefore have been long exposed to powerful 
aqueous action, while those (so far as I can ascertain) which have been 
* T have not examined them to the east of Stainmoor. 
VOL. IV.—PART I. H 
