44 



M.R. J. E. MARR ON THE TARNS OP LAKELAND. [Feb. 1 895, 



the depression between Great and Green Gables by Aaron Slack, and 

 entering Sty Head Gill 



just below the tarn. The 

 exit of Sty Head Gill 

 shows rock in situ, but 

 the former valley no 

 doubt lay east of this, and 

 has been choked up by 

 the dry delta which has 

 been formed at the foot of 

 Aaron Slack, so ponding 

 back the water to form 

 the tarn, for the feebler 

 stream descending from 

 Sprinkling Tarn or its 

 vicinity has been quite 

 unable to clear away this 

 detritus. 1 



Fig. 9. — Plan of Sprinkling Tarn. 



[For Explanation, see p. 47.] 



Sprinkling Tarn (1960 feet) has its present exit over rock on its 

 west side, but at the south-eastern corner is a moraine-blocked 

 valley, descending into Ruddy Gill on the east, and having its floor 

 occupied by drift for a long distance downwards ; this was probably 

 the old valley in the course of which Sprinkling Tarn now lies, and 

 which by being moraine-blocked has caused the formation of the 

 tarn. I do not think that anyone would claim this tarn, nearly cut 

 in two by its steep craggy promontory on the west side, as an ice- 

 worn rock-basin. (See fig. 9.) 



A former tarn, now quite overgrown with vegetation, occurs at the 

 head of the prominent part of the red gully at the top of Ruddy 

 Gill, a little below Esk Hause. The stream from it goes over rock 

 at the exit, but a moraine-blocked gully occurs just to the south, 

 which enters Ruddy Gill a little lower down. 



Between Esk Hause and Angle Tarn is a former moraine-dammed 

 tarn, now a swamp, as the stream has cut through the moraine. It 

 is a good example of scores of similar peat-mosses scattered through 

 the district, showing that the tarns which now survive are but a 

 fraction of those which once existed. These peat-mosses are 

 noticed in answer to a possible objection that the streams ought to 

 have cut down to the original valley-bottom. The answer is that 

 they generally did so, but in these cases the tarns were quickly 

 destroyed and converted into peat-mosses ; only those have survived 

 which, owing to various circumstances, had the streams below the 

 tarns deflected from their original courses. 



Angle Tarn, at the foot of Hanging Knotts, has rock at the present 



1 For a similar explanation of the lakelets of the Eagadine, see Dr. 0. du Eiche 

 Preller, Geol. Mag. 1893, p. 448. 



