Some  of  these  conglomerates  possess  a  character
which  unmistakably  marks  them  as  glacial  boulder
clays.  The  stones  are  of  all  sizes,  and  not  mere  pebbles,
and  they  are  generally  sub-angular,  just  like  those  of
many  of  the  boulder  clays  of  the  last  Glacial  Epoch.  Like
some  of  these  boulder  clays  also,  the  stones  are  imbedded
in  a  red  marly  paste,  once  un consolidated  clay,  and  in
similar  conglomerates  in  the  Cumbrian  region,  scratched
stones  have  been  found  in  some  cases  unmistakably
resembling  those  which  are  allowed  by  all  to  have  had
their  markings  produced  by  the  agency  of  glacier  ice.
A  bold  man  might  even  go  further,  for  opposite  the
mouth  of  the  valley  of  Ullswater,  at  the  outlet  of  the
lake,  there  are  great  heaps  of  angular  boulder-con-
glomerate, culminating  in  the  big  mound-like  hills  of
Mell  Fell  and  the  neighbourhood,  the  stones  cemented
in  a  marly  base.  It  is  an  obvious  fact  to  skilled


Old  Red  Sandstone.  113

geologists,  well  known  to  those  of  the  Geological  Survey,
who  mapped  the  ground,  that  some  of  the  valleys  of
Cumberland  are  of  older  date  than  the  deposition  of  the
Old  Eed  Sandstone,  and  standing  on  the  ground  it  was
impossible  for  me  not  to  fed  the  idea,  that  Mell  Fell
and  Little  Mell  Fell  look  like,  and  may  be,  the  relics
of  an  old  moraine,  shed  from  a  glacier  of  Old  Red
Sandstone  age,  that  flowed  down  a  valley  far  older  than
that  of  modern  Ullswater,  and  long  before  the  special
hollow  in  which  the  lake  lies  was  formed.  The
mountains  were  much  higher  than  now,  for  since  then
they  have  undergone  an  immense  amount  of  denudation.
