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Westmorland; but are not found in the neighbourhood of the lakes.
Bowlders from the sienite of Buttermere and Ennerdale are found
on the west coast of Cumberland; but not in the vales of Keswick
or Windermere. The granite of Caldew and sienite of Carrock can
be recognized in Bowlders in the neighbourhood of Carlisle; but
are not seen to the south of Keswick. The porphyritic Bowlders
from St. John's Vale, and the mountain east of it, are frequent
in the neighbourhood of Penrith; the large stone in the centre of
Mayburgh is of that kind. The famous Bowder Stone of Borrowdale
does not come within the present description; having apparently
fallen from the adjacent rock above; but a large block near
Skelwith Bridge, on the road to Grasmere - one near Coniston
Waterhead, and another near Gosforth, as well as many others of
smaller dimensions - are far more interesting to the geologist;
yielding sufficient scope for conjecture as to the place of their
origin, and the mode of their removal.
Evidences of the operation of some extraordinary power, at a
former age of the world, may be observed in different valleys;
especially those of Borrowdale and Langdale, and also in the
vicinity of Windermere; where the surfaces of the lower rocks,
after being divested of their diluvial covering, are found to be
rounded and smoothed, and sometimes striped or scored in a
remarkable manner. Some, who have become converts to a recently
promulgated theory, will attribute those appearances to the
agency of GLACIERS; but the action of WATER seems more
intelligible to the mere English geologist.
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