650 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL society. ~— [June 22, 
Geikie* as more or less solitary mounds of stratified gravel, run- 
ning in a “sinuous line, from a few yards to several miles in length, 
averaging perhaps from 50 to 60 feet in height, and rising abruptly 
from the ground into a narrow crest.”’ Some of the pebbles of the 
gravel of the Kames described by Mr. Geikie he found to be 
scratched by ice. Possibly some of the Scotch Kames may be of the 
Middle-drift age; but, at the same time, even if this be the case, 
there can be no reason to suppose that ice, on a limited scale, may 
not have been present during the period of the formation of the 
’Kames, as well as of the Middle-Drift sand and gravel, especially 
as there can be little doubt that glaciers lingered in the deep val- 
leys of the Cumberland mountains long after the elevation that 
lifted the Kames high above the sea. 
Moraines.—During a few days’ leave of absence, spent in the 
lake-district of Westmoreland and Cumberland, I observed that all 
the great lakes I visited (Windermere, Grasmere, Thirlmere, Ulles- 
water, Brothers’water, and Elterwater) lay in true “ rock-basins,” 
the rock bottom sloping inwards in all directions, with a gradual 
inclination at first, and then a sudden deep plunge to the bottom of 
the lake. The lakes run in chains, like extended river-courses, 
through deep gorges of rock, the sides of which are scored with 
glacial markings; these I observed near the head of the lake (with 
the help of a glass) at the bottom of Windermere itself. Roches 
moutonnées are found at the foot of most of the lakes, notably at 
Grasmere, where the river has cut for itself a sort of groove, or slot, 
through the rock. Kverywhere the rivers merely carry away the 
surface- or overflow-water of the lakes, the rock-surface under the 
water being even steeper on the outlet side than on the inlet, 
partly perhaps from the deposition of alluvium, but mainly, one 
eannot help considering, by the rock being worn into a slope by 
the gradual passing over, onwards and downwards, of the glaciers 
which must once have filled those gorges, while the enormous pres- 
sure from behind, tending to cause an upward movement, would 
cause the steep and cliff-like declivity of the lower ends of the 
lake-depressions. At the mouths of nearly all the lateral valleys 
running into the gorges patches of moraine matter occur, as well as 
at the entrance of the great Windermere gorge itself, descending as 
low as to 150 feet above the sea. In the Furness district, imme- 
diately to the south, the three drifts of Mr. Hull occur, the Upper 
Boulder-clay reaching elevations of nearly 300 feet at Hawcoat, 
near Barrow: and as it occurs at elevations of far greater height in 
the country to the south of Morecambe Bay, it would appear nearly 
certain that it, as well as the Middle Drift and Lower Boulder- 
clay, is absent in the lake-district, having been scooped out by 
the glaciers which occupied these valleys at the close of the Glacial 
epoch. I abstain from giving further details of this district, partly 
because I have published some notes upon it in the ‘ Geological 
Magazine,’ partly because Mr. Hull has done so, in a paper in the 
* **On the Phenomena of the Glacial-drift of Scotland,” Trans. Geol. Soc. of 
Glasgow, vol. i. part ii. 1863, p. 112. 
