left behind. All the country bordering on the western shore is 

 covered by an enormously thick deposit of red coloured diluvial 

 gravel containing innumerable rolled fragments of rocks derived 



from every part of the lake mountains ; and all the neighbouring 

 islands are composed exclusively of the same materials. A 

 rolled mass of Eskdale granite, which had been imbedded in 

 the highest portion of the diluvial cliff near Rampside, fell 

 down upon the strand in the year 1822. It rose nine or ten 

 feet above the rubbish in which it was at that time partially 

 buried. At the base of the cliffs of the isles of Barrow and 

 Foudrey, among innumerable bowlders of granite, and of other 

 Cumberland rocks, were some specimens of a beautiful variety 

 of compact felspar which I afterwards found in situ near the top 

 of Sea-fell and Bow-fell. * 



In places where the inferior strata are so completely concealed 

 it is impossible to ascertain the whole thickness of the diluvial 

 covering. In many parts of Low Furness, it. must, I think, be 

 considerably more "than 100 feet. Near Newbiggin, where they 

 were searching for coal in the year 1823, they passed through 

 6'0 feet of diluvial loam before they reached any rock /'// situ. 



The phenomena above described have obviously been caused 

 by a violent rush of descending waters. Whatever forces may 

 have put these waters in motion, it is, 1 think, obvious, from the 

 facts already stated, that they have not acted partially, but 

 have swept over the whole cluster of the neighbouring moun- 

 tains. 



Diluvial Deposits in the Mid Region of the Mountains, fyc. 



V. If the accumulations of diluvial gravel, such as have been 

 last described, were produced by descending currents which 

 brought fragments of rock down from the very crests of the 

 neighbouring mountains ; we may expect to find some traces of 

 such currents in the mid regions of the district between the 

 highest elevations and the surrounding plains. In such situa- 

 tions, for obvious reasons, we must not look for those accumula- 

 tions of diluvial loam which are extended over the lower country. 

 The transported materials will only find a partial lodgment, or 

 will appear in the form of scattered bowlders which the propel- 



• The direction in which the diluvian currents have swept over the western coast of 

 Cumberland, is plainly indicated by the immense accumulations of bowlders of Eskdale 

 granite in Low Furness, and in the whole cluster of the neighbouring islands, and would 

 lead us to expect the appearance of rolled masses of the same variety of rock on the 

 plains of Lancashire. Prof. Buckland states (Reliquiae Diluviaii.-r, p. I!)<)j, that they 

 have been drifted in great numbers over the plains of Lancashire, Cheshire, and Stafford- 

 shire. In a description given by Dr. Hibbert. in the Edinburgh Journal of Science for 

 last April, of an interesting diluvial deposit containing granite bowlders which occurs 

 near ^Manchester, it is conjectured that the transported blocks are derived from the 

 granite of Dufton near Appleby. Had the author been acquainted with the facts 

 detailed above, he would probably have referred the bowlders in question to the Eskdale 

 granite. 



