On glacial phenomena in Scotland and parts of England / by Robert Chambers.

Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On glacial phenomena in Scotland and parts of England / by Robert Chambers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    feet above the lake is not, therefore, surprising. Mr Maclaren speaks of a striated vertical face of rock on the west side of the deep narrow valley of Troutbeck, 500 feet above the bot- tom of that valley, indicating a glacier of still greater depth. In the Thirlmere valley, for several miles down from the summit at Dunmail Raise, I could find no glacialised sur- faces ; but at length they became conspicuous at a place op- posite Armboth, near the lower extremity of the lake. Be- tween this place and Keswick, four miles from that town, I found a considerable surface, exposed in consequence of quarrying for road-metal. The whole was beautifully polish- ed and striated, the direction of the striae being a little west of magnetic north, and thus coincident with the major axis of the valley. In all of these cases, there are unequivocal appearances of a stoss seite, or exposed side to the south, or up the valley. For some miles below Dunmail Eaise, in the Grasmere valley, there are, in like manner, no abraded surfaces ; but they present themselves on the north side of that lake, with striation pointing to N. 25° W., being the direction of the valley at that place ; likewise in a low field south of Rydal, and in Dr Davy's garden, near Ambleside, where the direc- tion, however, of the stria3 is more easterly, and towards Rydal glen. On the high ground over which the bye-road passes between Grasmere and Skelwith Bridge, there are mammillated rocks, with striae from N. 25° W., or nearly magnetic north, a direction from which it would be diffi- cult for any such agent to come to such a place. At Birth- waite Railway Station, near the shore of Windermere, there is a large recently exposed surface, glacially polished, and bearing striae of the same direction, being that of the valley of Windermere. In the valley of the Kent, near Stavely, there are several examples of abraded surfaces, one of which has been accu- rately described by Mr Bryce. It is situated at a place called Jacob's Wood, and having only lately been exposed, it is in the finest possible condition. The slate (Lower Ludlow rocks) is here remarkably hard, insomuch that an attempt at quar- rying it has had to be abandoned. A sui'faeo, fifty-three B