39 



Bowlders on Kendal Fells, fyc. 

 5. Equally striking examples may be found on the south side 

 of the mountainous region. On the fiat tops of the calcareous 

 hills on the west side of Kendal are many rounded blocks, appa- 

 rently drifted from the green slate formation at the head of Kent* 

 meer and Long Sleddale. These calcareous hills are now 

 separated by deep valleys from every part of the slate formation. 

 Similar phenomena appear on several parts of the mountains 

 between Kendal and Sedbergh, and among the rolled masses 

 are a few bowlders of shap granite. The instances now given 

 are sufficient for my present purpose ; for they completely bear 

 out the observations by which they were preceded. 



Proofs of Di I avian Action at the Tops of the Mountains. 



VI. It is stated by Buckland (Jleliquia Diluriana-, p. 221), 

 " that all mountain regions he has ever visited bear, in the form 

 of their component hills, the same evidence of being modified 

 by the force of water, as do the hills of the lower regions of the 

 earth." My own observations, as far as they go, confirm the 

 truth of this remark. Some of the highest mountains of Cum- 

 berland and Westmorland, which consist of a soft decomposing 

 slate, are as plainly modified by the action of denuding currents 

 as any of the secondary ridges of our island. We must, however, 

 remember that the earth's surface has been ravaged by the action 

 of water during several distinct catastrophes, and that the pre- 

 sent modifications in the form of some of our mountain chains 

 may, therefore, have been effected during some epoch long ante- 

 cedent to that of the diluvial gravel. To prove that the floods 

 which produced the superficial gravel have swept over the tops 

 of the highest mountains, requires, therefore, more direct 

 evidence than that which is afforded by the external forms of 

 the mountains themselves.* I think it has already been proved 

 that diluvian torrents have swept over every part of the Cum- 

 berland chain ; because we find water-worn masses, derived from 

 the highest elevations of the country, imbedded in the diluvial 

 loam which covers almost all the neighbouring plains ; and 

 because we find large bowlders of the same rocks scattered over 

 many parts of the mid region of the mountains, in situations to 

 which they could never have been drifted by any less powerful 

 agent than that to which they have been ascribed. I may also 

 observe that the bowlders in question, at whatever elevation, are 

 all in the same state of preservation, and all appear, as far as we 

 can judge from their external characters, to have been produced 

 at the same epoch. 



Admitting the fact that the waters of a great inundation have 



* For the direct evidence offered on this subject by Prof. Buckland, see the " Keli- 

 qui<c Diluvinmc" p. 221 — 223. 



