524 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May 25, 
onthe lower portion of this chain, on Stainmoor, over which the 
Wastdale-Crag blocks have travelled, escarpments of Carboniferous 
rocks facing westwards are common. Speaking generally of a sec- 
tion from Wastdale Crag to Hunderthwaite Moor, on the east side 
of the Pennine chain, showing the contour of the surface, it may 
be said that the escarpments face towards the west, and that the 
gentler slopes incline towards the east. 
The mode by which the granite blocks of Wastdale Crag have 
been transported over the hilly portion of Westmoreland and from 
thence across the Pennine chain has excited the inquiry of geolo- 
gists, but as yet no satisfactory conclusions have been arrived at 
concerning the process which effected this transport. 
Among other causes glaciers have been regarded as the agents. 
There are, however, some circumstances which render this mode of 
transport very improbable. 
It has already been shown that the valleys of the Lyvennet and 
the Eden, and their smaller dells, are of an age considerably ante- 
rior to the period of the dispersion of the Wastdale-Crag blocks; and 
also that the outline of the surface of the country over which these 
blocks have passed has undergone comparatively little change since 
the time when glaciers furrowed the surfaces of the rocks upon 
which the Boulder-clays repose. These ancient glaciers have fol- 
lowed the courses of the present drainage of the country, or, in 
other words, have had a motion from south to north so far as the 
valleys of the Lyvennet and the Eden and their subordinate vales 
are concerned. A glacier of considerable size must have occupied 
the valley of the Eden, which was fed by tributary glaciers, espe- 
cially from the west side of the Pennine chain; and a smaller gla- 
cier, with still smaller feeders, must have had its course along the 
valley of the Lyvennet. 
The country immediately east of Wastdale Crag is of such an out- 
line as to furnish none of the conditions necessary for the formation 
of glaciers ; but on the north and south side of this hill the surface- 
outlines are in every way such as would give rise to such products. 
On the south side there is a valley the head of which is Great 
Yarlside, attaining an elevation of nearly 2000 feet above the level of 
the sea. This valley is flanked atits N.E. termination by the granite 
of Wastdale Crag, which in some spots affords glacial scratches, the 
direction of which corresponds to the course of the valley, which, 
after running for about a mile N.E. of Wastdale Crag to Shap Wells, 
turns to the §.E., and flowing for about four miles in this direction, 
under the name of the Birkbeck, joins the Lune at Tebay. The 
direction of this stream is the course which a glacier would have 
taken had it occupied this valley and the country in front of it 
during the period when the granite blocks were being distributed. 
On the N.W. side of Wastdale Crag is a valley known as Wet 
Sleddale ; this is drained by the sources of the river Lowther, 
which originate in the high ground on the north side of Great Yarl- 
side. A glacier occupying this valley during the rigorous climate 
of the glacial epoch, would haye extended itself towards the N.E. 
