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UN THE GEOLOGY OF THE LONGMYND HILLS. 



BY THE REV. J. D. LA TOUCHE. 



It has been said that the fittest person to give a lecture is one who knows 

 but very little of his subject. I suppose, because such a person is not daunted 

 by its difficulties or the mistakes he may make — on the principle that "mor- 

 tals rush in where angels fear to tread " — he dashes along on the strength of 

 whatever information he can get together, and, unconscious, so to speak, of the 

 shoals and rocks which embarrass a more skilful pilot, he brings his vessel trium- 

 phantly into port. According to this maxim you have before you a very efficient 

 lecturer indeed ; and on my part, I might fairly hope to win applause, but for 

 one serious difficulty. The ignorant, though audacious, pilot may come across 

 a rock, and as for me, I am conscious that my audience is one not satisfied with 

 fluent words and rounded phrases : you are well accustomed to consider the 

 subject on which I speak. Your frequent excursions, and the many excellent 

 scientific papers which are from time to time read before you, have made the 

 study of geology so habitual with you, that it is not likely that any rash asser- 

 tion or conjecture will pass undetected. 



And yet this thought should give me confidence, since assuredly the most 

 important object of such efforts as these should be the determination of facts. 

 It is, of course, a very important thing, at least to the speaker, that he should 

 come well out of his ordeal and be considered competent and able and so forth ; 

 but I need not say that he has achieved a far higher victory if he has helped 

 to elicit truth. 



To come to the point. I am bound to say that the more I study the 

 geology of the Longmynds the less inclined I feel to lecture upon them, that is, 

 to suggest anything like a probable conjecture as to their history and the mode 

 of their formation. It is comparatively easy to sketch the broad facts that they 

 present to our observation, but when we attempt to reason on these facts 

 we are met with many questions which present great difficulty. 



The range of hills on which we are standing rises from the midst of an 

 undulating country on both sides. These undulations bear an evident relation 

 to this the central one. It is plain, on taking a glance over the surrounding 

 country, that the lines of hills run generally parallel to that of the Longmynd. 

 Such is the case with the Stiperstones and its subordinate ridges on the one 

 hand, and on the other with the Caradoc, which rises in rivalship on the oppo- 

 site side of tbe Stretton valley, and which u ?.!so accompanied by several lower 



