VI.—Note on Post-glacial Lake-basins in Westmoreland

Abstract

The little village of Crossby-Garrett, near Brough, appears to occupy the site of a Post-glacial lake. Lower Carboniferous strata compose the fell to the south, the lowest beds being yellow earthy limestones. Below this, in all the gorges, are deep red shales of the uppermost Old Red. and on the summits of some of the hills to the south are outliers of the New Red; the Drift lies in patches and contains mud, sandstone, and numerous blocks of Shap granite. The gullies coming down from Crossby fell converge at the gate of the village, and show excavation in Boulder drift. The bed of the torrent is dry during the greater part of the year, it receives only the surface water, which, as it falls swiftly down the valley through the Drift, makes rough work of its sides every freshet. Underneath the church hill, at the lower end of the village, the remains are visible of the dam which once enlaked the little valley. It has been clean cut through by the bursting of the Lake, and the banks of the exca- vation, and bottom of the old lake are now occupied by cottages and gardens. Another small lake existed near the village, in fields still called the tarn-fields, but whilst the former must have been drained, probably in pre-historic times (judging from the subsequent work of the torrent), the latter has disappeared by artificial drainage into the Smardale beck within a century.