149 



Fro7n Mr. Otley. 



Keswick, January 30th, 1828. 



Sir,— 



I am much obliged by your explanation relating to the conglomerates ; I 

 am not suflSciently acquainted with them myself to form any very strong opinion, 

 and I did not know that this of Mell Fell had actually been observed to pass under 

 the limestone. Two or three questions naturally suggest themselves. — From 

 whence have the included pebbles been derived ? Have they travelled from the 

 fells of Orton and collected the calcareous and ferruginous matter by the way, 

 or have they once existed as a bed of Gravel, and been afterwards conglomerated 

 by the infusion of calcareous tufa ? and what became of the surplus when Mell Fell 

 was rounded into its present shape? I was at a loss to guess. I do not know 

 that what I have taken for limestone pebbles are to be found in Mell Fell ; I think 

 I found one in the Conglomerate, near the foot of Ullswater : from their greater 

 frequency in that at Kirkby Lonsdale, I thought it might have been of somewhat 

 later formation, and I almost imagined that I saw where it had rested upon the 

 Limestone at the foundation of Kirkby Lonsdale Bridge : however, this certainly 

 bears no resemblance to the BrocTcrem of Kirkby Stephen, of which Wright has 

 brought me a specimen only last week. 



I have not had an opportunity of seeing the Old Red Sandstone, on which, 

 "in its common form of a coarse pudding-stone," the lowest stratum of the great 

 escarpment of the great limestone series of Cross Fell is said to be incumbent from 

 Melmerby, to High Cap, near Marton. 



In the map of Skiddaw, etc., which I sent you, I believe I made a small 

 mistake in a part where I ought to have been best acquainted. On the South side 

 of the mountain, Bargill should have been made to join Howgill, before it crosses 

 the Turnpike road; instead of joining Gale Gill, which enters the Derwent at a 

 different place. 



C. H. Wright is obliged by your kind remembrance ; he is preparing to set off 

 for Oxford with a collection, in consequence of an invitation from some young 

 Collegians last Summer, and you may probably see him at Cambridge before his 

 return. I have the pleasure of sending you a copy of my new Map of the Lake 

 District, and shall be very happy in making an excursion with you in the ensuing 

 Summer. 



I am, Sir, 



Your humble Servant, 



JONATHAN OTLEY. 



10 



