23 
tions of either the Esk or Duddon Valleys; and in this 
respect there is a marked difference between the east and 
west sides of Bowfell. This is probably to be accounted for 
by the fact that to the eastwards the vales of Langdale and 
Borrowdale lie high, and the ice would soon be checked in 
its flow ; so that we now find the terminal moraines at the 
heads of the valleys. To the westward the valleys have a 
continuously rapid fall for five or six miles, throughout 
which course they have a “hummocky” aspect, and below 
this they are comparatively wide and levelled; so that in 
all probability the glaciers which formerly existed had their 
terminations in arms of the sea. 
This is exactly the sort of glacial condition which would 
best explain the requirements of a drift theory, by which 
the travelled boulders found in Lancashire shall have been 
carried thither by ice ; — and a careful study of the Eskdale 
valley, after first ascertaining the existence of undoubted 
glacial evidences at its head, confirms the writer in the 
opinion that it is from this district, and by glacial agency, 
that they were transported. It is only needful to suppose 
a state of things to have existed in England analagous to 
that which now obtains in similar latitudes, on the ice- 
bound coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland, where floe- 
ice prevails for many months of the year over an area of 
from 200 to 300 miles in width, whilst the land is covered 
with glaciers during the same period. The glaciers there 
carry the boulders down to the shore during the summer, 
and they are picked up by the floe-ice the following winter, 
and borne away at the breaking up of the ice, as warm 
weather returns, and floated seawards, as the winds and 
waves may direct. To complete the picture, we have 
to realise the fact, that the Bowfell range of mountains was 
at this period an insulated group, washed by a frozen sea, 
and covered with perpetual snow ; and much of Lancashire 
and the Midland Counties submerged. There is every 
