31 



THE PENRITH SANDSTONE. 



( Given at Nunntry Walks, l88l.^ 

 By J. G. GOODCHILD, F.G.S., F.Z.S., H.M. Geological Survey. 



At Melmerby, on the last occasion when I hacl the honour of 

 addressing this Society, it was our good fortune to have before us 

 for examination as great a variety of geological matter as could 

 well be found in any arra of the same extent in the British Isles. 

 Here, on the contrary, our geological surroundings are as simple 

 as at Melmerby they were complex. Nevertheless, I hope to be 

 able to show that we have here presented for our study much that 

 is of more than ordinary interest to the geologist, and that is of 

 especial interest to the student of Cumbrian geology. On the 

 present occasion I propose to confine my attention to the study of 

 one rock, instead of running cursorily over the whole range of 

 rocks of Edenside, and to point out what kind of evidence this 

 rock yields, and how that evidence is put together to enable us to 

 reconstruct, in imagination, the physical geography of Edenside 

 at the time the rock before us was in process of formation. 

 Amongst the numerous questions that arise in the course of such 

 an inquiry are: — What was the general nature of the surface; 

 what mountains were in existence here ; what rivers had we then, 

 and which way did they flow ; where did this rock come from, and 

 how was it formed ; what kind of climate prevailed in those old 

 days ; what were the animals like, and what the plants ; in short, 



