J. Clifton Ward

“ The raven's croak among the overhanging cliffs, the patch of snow lying unmelted deep in a rocky fissure, the scattered sheep browsing carelessly on the few grassy slopes, while all around are masses of tumbled rock, and the light veil of cloud that ever and anon sweeps the cliff-tops and adds an air of mystery and wonder to the whole—all combine to make a scene which can not but send a thrill of pleasure and perhaps of happy awe to every heart. ”

“ There is every gradation from a tiny, rock-bound pool, glaciated on all sides, and which all will admit must have been scooped out by the ice, to the tarn or lake showing precisely similar phenomena on a larger scale.
Since the ice-plow passed over our land the atmospheric powers have been at work for a long period; and while many rock basins are now completely filled up by stream-borne matter, all are being so filled, and each age must witness a decrease in the number and size of those sheets of water which form so marked a character of our Cumbrian scenery. ”

“ Therefore, on a summer's day, as we lie dreamily gazing upon the rippling waters of these mountain tarns, we may sometimes think of an age which is past, when the ice-sheet moved majestically over the now heather-clad fells, and all the country lay "clad in white samite, mystic, wonderful."—Popular Science Review. ”

“ At the sides of many a tarn and lake you may see the ice grooves and scratches passing beneath the water, so as to leave no doubt whatever that ice has once occupied the rocky hollow. The question is. Did the ice-movement form the hollow? I believe that in most cases it did, and for these reasons: 1. The tarn lies almost invariably in the path of old ice streams or glaciers, as is proved by the direction of the scratches in the surrounding rocks. 2. They frequently occur at the foot of slopes more or less steep, or where the ice-pressure can be shown to have been great. ”

“ That is to say, the rock basin is imperfect on one side, and there an old glacial moraine may have helped to dam the waters back ever since the retreat of the glacier which threw off the moraine. It frequently happens that a little moraine material has been left upon ice-rounded rocks at the foot of a tarn, and in such cases a hasty observation might lead one to believe that the whole mound was a moraine. Let us remember, then, that a tarn may lie in a complete rock basin, ice-formed; in a glaciated hollow dammed on the lower side by a moraine or other accumulation of rocky débris ”

“ But the yearly waste of mountain-side and the matter brought down by every stream have filled up many a mountain pool, and frequent peat-mosses mark the spot where once the waters danced in the mountain breeze. ”

“ Now, there is little doubt that most people, if asked to draw the form of the hollow in which the waters of a tarn now lie so placidly, would grossly exaggerate its true depth, or perhaps liken it to the basin formed by placing the two hands together, side by side, curved, with the palms uppermost. ”

“ Hold out one hand, palm uppermost, and straighten it as much as possible—the hollow in the palm is yet far too deep to represent with truth the natural rock basin. Soundings taken in lakes throughout the district all show the same thing—the basins are very shallow compared with their size and the height of the surrounding hills. ”

“ The position of the deepest points in the larger tarns and lakes occurs almost invariably where, from the confluence of two or more glaciers or the narrowing of the valley, the ice-pressure must have been somewhat increased. ”

“ If not produced by expulsion of matter outward or sinking of matter inward, these hollows must be the effect of some surface-working agent. The sea planes away along the coast-line, and the material goes to fill up ocean-hollows; therefore the sea can not be the agent. ”