68 J. G. GOODCHILD ON THE GLACIAL PHENOMENA OE THE 



portal of the Scotch boulders, the ice from Kirkcudbright and 

 Dumfries must have flowed across the Solway in a nearly south- 

 easterly direction, as thousands of boulders from the Galloway 

 granite are scattered over the north-west of Cumberland. Such a 

 stream of ice flowing in a south-easterly direction from Kirkcudbright, 

 meeting with the opposing current from the north-west of the Lake 

 district, must have resulted in the sending off of a combined cur- 

 rent having a direction nearly magnetic east. About Carlisle the 

 northern part of this stream must have had its direction again 

 modified by the outflow from the local ice of the high ground between 

 Eskdale and Teviotdale, which would cause it to take a turn still 

 nearer to the east, while the southern part of the stream would be 

 forced against the Cross-Fell escarpment and compelled to flow in a 

 direction nearly parallel to it. 



Once fairly in the Eden valley the slightest advance towards 

 Stainmoor placed the upper part of the Scotch ice-stream more and 

 more within the influence of the Lake-district ice, until, on meet- 

 ing with the powerful north-easterly flow from the western side of the 

 Dale district, the current was turned towards the comparatively low 

 part of the escarpment near Brough and forced over on to the eastern 

 side of the watershed. 



It can hardly be doubted that the northerly line of fells ranging 

 through High Street to the eastern side of the foot of Ullswater, 

 backed up, as it is, by a still higher range extending from Helvellyn 

 towards the high ground about the Caldbeck Fells, must have exercised 

 a very considerable easterly impelling influence upon the upper parts 

 of the Eden-valley ice. The fact that the striae found on these fells 

 show that the ice moved in the main along the valleys does not at all 

 disprove the existence of higher currents flowing in other directions. 



It has been remarked that one of the greatest difficulties we meet 

 with in trying to account for the drifting of the boulders over 

 Stainmoor is that many of the ice-markings seen in the Eden valley 

 are plainly right across the path taken by the drift. Prof. Bamsay's 

 theory that there were currents flowing in various directions at 

 different levels in the ice-sheet over any given spot helps to explain 

 not only this, but, as will be shown further on, much else connected 

 with the drift that would be difficult to explain in any other way. 

 As before observed, much of the ice that filled the Eden valley 

 came from the high ground to the south ; and the easterly drifting 

 of the boulders has been inferred to have resulted from the meeting 

 of the northerly-flowing local ice with the stream that flowed 

 parallel to the escarpment. Therefore it is probable that at low 

 levels the local ice would be pressing outwards far to the north of 

 the currents which, in the higher parts of the great stream, were 

 flowing eastwards full of boulders. In this way it is easy to 

 explain the existence of the scratches at Gathorn near Crosby 

 Bavensworth which are referred to by Prof. Harkness in his paper on 

 the distribution of Shap-granite Boulders. These striae lie at, or near, 

 the bottom of a valley which lay exactly in the path of the ice 

 coming from the Howgill Fells ; so that it is not improbable that an 



