34 



To the ordinary mind these facts may seem of but little import- 

 ance ; but to them that believe that the past changes of the earth 

 and of its inhabitants have taken place as gradually as they are 

 taking place under our own observation, these great revolutions 

 betoken a lapse of unrepresented time second only to that between 

 the Silurian and the Carboniferous periods, which I have before 

 taken occasion to point out as the greatest chronological break we 

 have in the entire geological series. To compare geology with 

 history in treating of each of these great unconformities, it is as 

 though all records of the doings of man in England from the close 

 of the Bronze Period down to the Middles Ages had been com- 

 pletely effaced, and we were left to gain our knowledge of the past 

 succession of events from imperfect and fragmentary records of 

 various other nations afar off In the geological record between 

 the close of the Carboniferous Period and the commencement of 

 the next formation represented here, a whole chapter, and an 

 important chapter too, is missing, and there seems but little hope 

 that we shall ever recover more tlian detached fragments of the lost 

 pages. Now, I want to call attention to the fact that in other parts 

 of England the imperfection of the geological record relating to this 

 period is greater than it happens to be with us — there are more pages 

 missing elsewhere than there are here. Our copy, imperfect though 

 it is, includes one or two pages relating to the commencement of the 

 new order of things that we look for elsewhere in vain. In most 

 other parts of England the New Red Series is ushered in by the 

 Magnesian Limestone — all below that being almost entirely wanting. 

 But in Edenside we have strata extending downward many hundred 

 feet below that horizon, and we are thus enabled to trace back 

 the sequence of events to an earlier stage than is possible in other 

 parts of England. There is therefore no need to dwell upon the 

 importance of giving the closest possible attention to everything 

 connected with the history of the rock at present under notice. 

 I will now proceed to discuss some of the evidence ; taking first 

 the evidence afforded by the physical relations of the Penrith 

 Sandstone to the rocks whereon it lies. 



It has often been asserted that the Penrith Sandstone lies in an 



