Mr Robert Chambers, in a recent tour of the lakes of Westmoreland
(April 1852), has discovered that the valleys of that interesting
district were at one time occupied by glaciers. Glacialised surfaces
were previously observed in a few places not far from Kendal, but
without any conclusion as to the entire district. By Mr Chambers
conspicuous and unequivocal memorials of ice-action have been found in
most of the great central valleys, such as those of Derwentwater,
Ulleswater, Thirlwater, and Windermere. The principal phenomena are
rounded hummocks of rock on the skirts of the hills, and in the middle
of the valleys; and as these hummocks, whatever may be the direction
of the valleys, invariably present a smoothed side up, and an abrupt
side downwards (_stoss-seite_ and _lee-seite_ of the Scandinavian
geologists), it becomes certain that the glaciers proceeding from the
mountains at the upper extremities were local to the several valleys.
The smoothed hummocks are very noticeable in Derwentwater or
Borrowdale, the celebrated Bowderstone resting on one; a particularly
fine low surface appears at Grange, near the head of the lake. At
Patterdale, in Ulleswater Valley, the rocks are so much marked in this
manner, that the whole place bears a striking resemblance to the
sterile parts of Sweden; and some small rocky islets, near the head of
the lake, are unmistakable _roches moutonnées_. The two valleys
descending in opposite directions from Dunmail Raise, have had
glaciers proceeding from some central point: in that of Thirlwater,
the rounded hummocks are conspicuous at Armboth; in the other, near
Grasmere, and near the Windermere Railway Station. In all these cases,
the characteristic striation, or scratching produced on rock-surfaces
by glaciers, is more or less distinct, according as the surface may
have been protected in intermediate ages. Where any drift or alluvial
formation has covered it, the polish and striation are as perfect as
if they had been formed in recent times, and the lines are almost
invariably in the general direction of the valley.
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