Vol. 62.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Cxi 



I went over the ground with Prof. Garwood last year, and am 

 much indebted to him for help in my investigations. 



Beginning with what we believe to have been the former head 

 of the Duddon Valley, now the headwaters of the Esk, we find 

 these headwaters running in an upper valle}* known as Upper 

 Esk dale. This is sharply separated from Lower Eskdale by a steep 

 slope at the head of the latter, down which course two streams, the 

 Esk itself from Scawfell and Esk Hause, and Lingcove Beck from 

 Bowfell. The latter is separated from the dreary Mosedale Yalley 

 at the head of Duddon by a col, at a height of about 1260 feet; 

 and Mosedale is in a line which is practically continuous with that 

 of the Esk stream from Scawfell. There is good evidence on the 

 ground that this old head of Duddon has been tapped by the streams 

 of the Esk ^ and Lingcove Beck, which unite at Esk-Ealls Bridge. 

 The details of the change are somewhat complicated, and it is un- 

 necessary to discuss them here. The evidence points to the tapping 

 of the old ^head of Duddon, firstly by Lingcove Beck, and secondly 

 by the Esk itself. The old valley which runs nearly due east here 

 is wide, while Lingcove Beck and the Esk now escape from it by 

 narrow gorges. The Esk gorge, where the old valley at present 

 mouths, is clearly post-Glacial at the head. It has, at the top, cut 

 through moraine, which now slides down into the rocky gorge 

 beneath. 'This valley mouths at an altitude of 1100 feet, and that 

 of Lingcove .Beck at about 1150, a little more than 100 feet below 

 the present col separating it from the Duddon. 



The head of the Lower Esk is a wide straight valley, apparently 

 cut along a shatter-belt, in which the river rapidly deepened its 

 valley. Owing to this, the two tributaries at its head were able to 

 extend their sources backward, thus tapping the old Duddon. If 

 this be so, these two hanging valleys exist as such, because they 

 ouce formed part of a different drainage ; and the time since 

 diversion has been too short to allow of the deepening, to any great 

 extent, of the streams which effected the captures. 



Entering now into the region of the present Yale of Duddon, 

 Mosedale Beck after a course of 1| miles reaches Cockley Bridge, 

 where it crosses one of the great shatter-belts formerly described. 

 Here the valley widens and runs in an alluvial flat to Birks Bridge, 

 where it enters a gorge marked by a shatter-belt which points 

 towards Cockley Beck. At this point there is some indication that 

 the old valley once swung in meanders, first westward under Harter 

 Fell and next eastward over the present ridge into the present 



