22 
Westwards from Bowfell are the vales of the Esk and 
Duddon. Eskdale proceeds directly to the sea at Raven- 
glass, having in its short course of 12 miles a fall of nearly 
3000 feet, and that chiefly in the first 6 miles of the valley. 
The estuary at Ravenglass has a very remarkable appear- 
ance, from the numbers of large boulders of granite, green- 
stone, porphyry, and clay slate, which lie scattered along the 
beach; resembling, on a small scale, the shores now fre- 
quented by drift ice in the harbours of Newfoundland. A 
nearer examination at once introduces a Lancashire geologist 
to the family of boulders, occurring so plentifully in our 
drift clays, and which, in all probability, have their origin 
in the Eskdale valley. Proceeding up Eskdale the granite 
district is soon reached. Standing on the bridge above 
Muncaster Castle, about two miles from the sea, you are in 
the centre of an amphitheatre of granite mountains, com- 
prising Muncaster Fells, Harter Fells, and Birker Moor 
Fells. The valley at this point, and for several miles inland, 
forms a wide and almost level ‘strath/ being filled up Avith 
diluvium, and it bears every appearance of having been an 
arm of the sea ; which would in such case have washed the 
bases of the granite hills from which the boulders came. 
This is that part of Eskdale in which Dr. Buckland, judging 
by Fryer’s map, supposed moraines to be in existence, but 
it is quite evident that in the present aspect of the valley, 
none are to be found. 
The panorama of mountains which form the head of 
Eskdale is by far the finest in the Lake District; comprising 
as it does the whole of the Scawfell, Bowfell, and Coniston 
range. The flanks of Bowfell on this side are glaciated in a 
remarkable manner ; and in the Avhole of the upper part of 
the valley there are evidences of the action of ice at almost 
every turn. Seen from above the whole valley has an ice- 
Avorn “ hummocky ” aspect. 
The author did not find any moraines in the upper por- 
