ON THE GLACIAL DRIFT OF FURNESS, LANCASHIRE. 209 
thing at all like concisely showing the very imperfect state of our 
present knowledge of the past history of organic life on our globe. 
OX THE GLACIAL DEIFT OF FUKNESS, 
LANCASHIRE. 
By Miss E. Hodgson. 
The following sketch of the glacial deposits of Furness is not pre- 
tended to be complete ; it is, in fact, nothing but a sketch : neither 
can it presume to be free from errors. The marine drift, especially, 
has not received all the attention it demands, but will, I hope, with 
tlie clays and peats of Furness, form a subject for a future memoir. 
'J'he deposits in the section are referred douhffuJh/ to their periods. 
Striated Bock Surfaces. — The di.-^trict of Furness ; its south-eastern 
part, however, does not perhaps present so many of those remark- 
able records of the glacial period, the striated rock-surfaces, as are to 
be met with in more mountainous districts. The rocks, especially 
the Carboniferous Limestone and Permian formations, either lie in a 
great measure hidden under a thick covering of deposits, or, as in the 
liills of the Upper Silurian strata, are of such a soft decomposing na- 
ture, that they retain very little primitive facing. 
Occasionally, however, striations may be found. A little way in 
shore, west from the estuary of the Crake, at the head of INIorecambe 
Bay, a rock-surface recently exposed by the removal of the overlying 
material, and now quarried away, showed a series of parallel shallow 
groovings from an inch to an inch and a half apart; the intervening 
spaces plane and smoothed, and having very Cue striae. The striaB 
and grooving had a direction from E. to W ., or perhaps a little N.E. 
to S.W. The rock presented an extraordinary and beautiful appear- 
ance, with no signs of fracture, but on attempting to break off a 
specimen, it was found to be literally crushed to pieces as if it had 
been an cgg-sliell : so that no specimen exhibiting more than one 
groove and smooth space could possibly be obtained. 
South of this, and still not far from shore, but with a hill of more 
than 300 feet elevation lying between, stria? are found taking a S.W. 
by S. direction. The same occurs very distinctly on other spots near. 
Further west, on Ben Crag, a hill of nearly 500 feet elevation, the 
same N.E. by N. and S.W. by S. striation is observed, protected by 
the grassy sod. 
It is found again with a very little variation on the Carboniferous 
Limestone, where it underlies the Boulder-clay on the shore between 
Bardsea and Aldingham. Some exposed beds of the limestone, 
levelled off and polished, have it very persistently, in fine parallel 
lines, now nearly worn out by the sea. 
This direction of stri« corresponds with the general trend of the 
hills of Furness, as well as with the line of the centre of Morecambe 
Bay. But even where this is not the case, where the strike of the 
VOL. YII. 2 E 
