I.—On the Origin of the Drifts, so-called Moraines, and Glaciated Rock-Surfaces of the Lake District

Extract

The Lake District differs from other parts of England in the comparative absence of table-lands or broad upland plateaux. The original mountain-masses have in most parts been eaten into by denudation to such a depth as to leave only a series of narrow ridges or edges which act as buttresses to small peaks. When the pedestrian has climbed up from the inner end of one profound excavation, he finds himself on the brink of another. The larger valleys are deepest at their inner ends, and shallow out and narrow off towards their entrances. Their floors fall so slightly outwards that were the outlet stream-channels to be filled up, the valleys would be converted into troughs. In most instances their mouths are confronted by higher ground, and this is sometimes so strikingly the case that in approaching a valley from the surrounding belt of Carboniferous strata, you find yourself going down instead of up among the mountains. The highest ground is not in the centre, but irregularly surrounds a comparatively depressed area about ten miles in average diameter. Such a configuration of country could not have been the best adapted for accommodating a quantity of snow at a high level sufficient to send very large “tongues of ice” along the radiating valleys.