Vol. 65.] THE H0WGILL FELLS AND THEIR TOPOGRAPHY. 605 



Prom Tarlside on the west of Backside Beck a wide depression runs 

 behind Wandale Hill to Adamthwaite and thence to Artlegarth 

 Beck which drains to Ravenstonedale. This depression is essentially 

 one valley, with its southern wall breached at two places by the 

 narrow valleys of Backside Beck and Wandale Beck. That the 

 Wandale breach was the earlier is indicated (1) by the lowering 

 of the col between Backside Beck and Wandale Beck to a depth of 

 70 feet below that between Wandale and Artlegarthdale ; (2) by 

 the steeper grade of the Wandale Valley, the 1000-foot contour 

 being far nearer to the head of Wandale than of Backside; and (3) 

 by the recent diversion of Spengill from Wandale Beck into Back- 

 side Beck by a ' corrom/ showing that the tract where the delta 

 occurs has been but recently dried by the beheading of the upper 

 waters of the Backside stream, known as Stockless Gill. It will be 

 seen from the plan (fig. 1, p. 590) and the section (PI. XXXI, fig. 1), 

 that Watley Gill, Stockless Gill, and Spen Gill now flowing into 

 Backside Beck, and Adamthwaite Sike and Stoneley Gill, tributaries 

 of Wandale Beck, all have their upper waters directed towards 

 Artlegarthdale : the latter case is especially clear, as its upper part 

 forms a hanging valley (as do the others in a less marked degree) 

 and its waters flow at first northwards, but bend round through 

 west to south to reach Wandale. The * corrom ' diversion of Spen- 

 gill into Backside Beck has caused the latter to cut the well-known 

 section in the Stockdale Shales while grading itself to its new 

 conditions. 



Turning now to the glaciation, two points in the physiography 

 of the region must be noticed. First, the hills east of the Backside 

 valley are much lower than those farther west ; and, owing to the 

 obliquity of Sally Beck and the Rawthey to Ravenstonedale, this 

 part of the upland is much narrower than on the east. Secondly, 

 the Fells of the high ground south of the Rawthey are nearer the 

 Howgill Fells and higher than those farther west. There was, 

 therefore, a great gathering-ground of ice in the amphitheatre in 

 which the head waters of the Rawthey arise on the south between 

 Baugh Fell (2216 feet), Swarth Fell (2235 feet), and Wild Boar 

 Fell (2324 feet). Goodchild takes his ice-shedding line over this 

 tract, and inserts on his map striae running nearly due north over 

 the col between Wandale and Artlegarthdale on the west side of 

 Harter Fell. That ice carried material over in this direction is 

 indicated by the presence of Carboniferous Limestone boulders on 

 the west side of Sally Beck, above Low Spout Gill, at a height of 

 about 1000 feet ; also by the presence of boulders of Millstone Grit at 

 the same height in Wandale near Adamthwaite, above the 1250-foot 

 contour-line over the watershed in Gaisgill, the head of Artlegarth- 

 dale, and, lastly, on the 1200-foot line near the head of Wyegarthdale. 



The Baugh Fell-Wild Boar Fell ice must have filled Wandale and 

 Sally Beck, either leaving Harter Fell as a ' nunatak,' or at the 

 time of maximum glaciation covering it, and going some way up 

 the Backside Beck valley. 



