276 



NOTES ON THE CONGLOMERATE AND OLD 

 RED SANDSTONE OF WESTMORLAND AND CUMBERLAND. 



BY C. W. ROTHERY, ESQ. 



MELL FELL. 



35' 



^^=^' Bampton. + 



Thkuk are few formations in the lake dis.trict more curious than the Con- 

 glomerate and Old Red Sandstone. Theso strata can be viewed by every 

 tourist along the north-west bank of Ullswater, at the foot of a hill, called 

 Soulby Fell, by which passos the Patterdale and Penrith road; also the 

 summer daily coaches convey not only lakers, but now and then a zealous 

 lithophilist, who takes an interest in stones and the wonders of our pedal 

 foundations; one or two having perchance the '^Thoughts on a Pebble" 

 pocketted, which evidently is a valuable book for a conglomerate. 



Soulby Fell is entirely composed of this formation, and it extends in a 

 north-west direction towards Mell Fell, a curious conical hill, which from the 

 Keswick road seems almost isolated in a sea of swampy wastes; it then is 

 traced across UUswater, near the foot of the lake, over the fell towards 

 Bampton; can be seen again at Shap Abbey, and between Orton and Tebay. 



This ferruginous composition is not very compact at Soulby Fell in many 

 plcices where it abuts in the Ghylls, but it becomes more consolidated in a 

 lower situation towards Dacre. At Dacre Bridge specimens can be obtained 

 sufficiently hard to be portable for cabinet use. 



The great feature of this rock is the variety of pebbles which it contains, 

 with evident markings of violent abrasion, held together by a heavy calcareous 

 cement. I have found in the Conglomerate, concretions of Calcedony, very 

 fine Porphyry, beautiful forms of Agate and Jasper, with the Shap Granite 

 in the Diluvium, resting with it. I observed a Shap Granite pebble, rounded 

 and very much worn, close to the Conglomerate of Orton and Tebay, placed 



