236 11. Chambers. Esq., on Glacial Phenomena 



which that large mass has fallen from its parent cliff above, 

 is itself partially abraded and smoothed by ancient ice. 

 Various prominent masses at Lodore, at Grange, and on the 

 west side of Derwentwater Lake, are in the same condition, 

 none, however, so strikingly so as a platform of flat bare rock 

 near the bridge at Grange, extending to the length of forty- 

 two paces, and still retaining its original glassy polish and 

 striation, notwithstanding its being subject to much wearing, 

 in consequence of its proximity to a public road and to a 

 farm-house. About a mile above this point, the extensive 

 basin, embraced by the arms of Scafell and Bowfell, and 

 which must have formed the gathering place of the snow 

 forming the glacier of this valley, contracts into a compara- 

 tively narrow space, and there the polished surfaces are par- 

 ticularly conspicuous. Just above the point of contraction, 

 these polished surfaces are slightly roughened, and bare 

 masses of partially water-worn materials laid against them. 

 I was at a loss to account for these facts, as the rivulet runs 

 through a rocky channel forty or fifty feet below, until I ob- 

 served that the passage for the river is through a chasm, the 

 sides of which, angular and rough, are altogether in contrast 

 to the neighbouring polished surfaces. It clearly appears, 

 that, before the river had cut out this channel, it had formed 

 a lake in the open valley above, and that to the action of this 

 lake we are to attribute the slight roughening of the pre- 

 viously glacialised surfaces, and the accumulation of water- 

 worn debris. 



The abraded surfaces at Patterdale, in the Ulleswater val- 

 ley, are scarcely less remarkable. Near the inn at the head 

 of the lake, there is so much of this sterile surface presented, 

 that the place reminded me much of certain parts of Sweden. 

 The two partially-wooded islets near the head of the lake, 

 rounded, shaven, polished, and only admitting vegetation in 

 chinks, are exactly like the numberless roches montonnees 

 which gem the Christiania-fiord, and, indeed, the whole of the 

 sea- board of Norway. As in the case of Borrowdale, there is an 

 extensive basin suitable for the collection of snow at the head 

 of this valley, and hence we might expect a glacier of consider- 

 able magnitude. My observing glacialised surfaces fully 200 



