59 



SKETCH OF THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE 

 LAKE DISTRICT. 



By J. Cliftox Wabti, F.G.S.. A.^.sno. R.S.M., of Her Majnsty's 

 % Geological SuT\'ey. 



Whenever we wish to draw np an account of the history of any par- 

 ticular period, our first care is to search out all the old parchments and 

 examine all the records that have been preserved in library and museum. 

 And when we wish to learn the geological history of any particular 

 district, our first care is to examine carefully the rocky volumes of that 

 district, to unroll its time-worn parchments and decipher their faded and 

 half-obliterated charfcters. 



No more interesting tract of country could we thus enquire into than 

 our English Lake District, and we shall nnd, I doubt not, that its past 

 history adds another charm to its present scenery. 



In Fig. 1 I have drawn a diagrammatic map of the district showing the 

 relations of the various rock-groups to one another, and how the older 

 (A to C) are enclosed in a frame — somewhat broken on the south — of the 

 newer Carboniferous (D) and Permian (E). Fig 2 is a horizontal section 

 taken through the area from north to south (N". to S.) In these figures (and 

 in Fig. 3), A — Skiddaw Slate, B — Volcanic Series, C — Coniston Limestone 

 and Upper Silurian, d — Conglomerate, D — Carboniferous, and E — Permian. 



