SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE GLACIAL GEOLOGY OF FURNESS

Abstract

(Read on March 29th, 1922.) For the purposes of this paper Furness may be taken as that portion of the Lake District which is bounded on the west by the River Duddon, on the north by the Little Langdale, and on the east by Windermere and the River Leven. Within this area the solid geology, so far as it affects the glacial geology, is very simple. If a line be drawn from Duddon Bridge in a north-easterly direction through Coniston and forward, it will cut off a north-westerly portion composed of Ordovician volcanic rocks of the Borrowdale series, and leave a south-eastern area chiefly made of Silurian slates and grits. Although there are minor variations in the dip and strike of these rocks, they may be regarded as having a general strike parallel to the dividing line mentioned, and a dip towards the south-east. The volcanic area consists of a mountainous massif, culminating in the Coniston Old Man (2633 ft.), and running to the south-west until it is cut off by the Duddon estuary. The south-east area is divided naturally into a hilly portion in the north, reaching in several places to 1000 feet, and a much flatter area, south of Ulverston, generally known as Low Furness, much of which is below the 50 feet contour. Very little attention appears to have been given to the glacial geology of Furness for many years. Clifton Ward* published details of the glaciation of the southern Lake District in 1875, but stopped at ...