April, 1891. 
GLACIAL ACTION AMONG BRITISH MOUNTAINS. 
79 
slied from the end of a small and slowly retreating glacier 
that once filled this deep glen, striking back into the heart of 
the High Street range ; undisturbed and most significant, 
seen at once to have been caused by no ordinary action of the 
weather. Here I would remark that such small terminal 
moraines would probably be numerous, as they are in 
this instance, because, during the amelioration of the climate, 
it is likely the glaciers would alternately retire and advance, 
probably during a long period, before finally leaving the 
valleys. In such cases frequently we do not readily find any 
scratched stones in the material, because of the short distance 
it has travelled. 
Not far from this spot, and just where two long valleys, 
coming down on either side the bold height of Red Screes, 
meet above the little, but interesting, lake of Brothers' Water, 
I found and counted fifteen or sixteen distinct moraine masses 
where the ice would converge near the site of the present 
lake. These numbers are from notes taken at the time, when 
I was much impressed by the striking assemblage of these 
relics of a bygone geological period. 
Directly north of Ambleside and Rydal rises a bold mass 
of mountain ground, culminating in the lofty Fairfield, so 
well known to Wordsworth and his charming sister Dorothy, 
during their residence in these villages. From Fairfield two 
long spurs come down closelv to the shores of Rvdal Water, 
one of these ending suddenly in the fine cliff called Nab Scar, 
often admired on passing along the coach road just below. 
Instead of running down and ending gradually, like the 
other spurs of the same group, this one is cut across, causing 
the bold precipitous cliff just mentioned. Now a glacier filling 
the Yale of Grasmere, and coming down from the wild hollows 
above, would meet with a narrow passage just at this place ; 
and I have no doubt this was the original agency in planing 
off the lower end of this spur, as the ice ground its course out 
in proceeding down towards Windermere. I am not aware if 
the probability of this has been pointed out before, but would 
like any one travelling that way to observe this Nab Scar in 
relation to its own and the other spurs coming down from the 
more central mass of Fairfield. Seen from below, it rather 
astonishes people, new to that glorious region, to point out 
that this is merely the end of a long mountain ridge reaching 
back some three-and-a-half miles. 
I remember once, after a grand ramble among the 
mountains just alluded to, and others about Brothers’ Water, I 
was returning on the western side of the lake and admiring the 
golden sunshine flooding with light all the opposite side of the 
