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tends to form lower ground along that line than along the part 

 where the rocks do not weather so fast. One consequence of this 

 is, that any river that happens to be passing that way is guided 

 more and more into the line of this fold, simply because the surface 

 is lower there, and water always tends towards the lowest level. 

 Now, it nearly always happens that a greater thickness of the newer 

 rock is left along the middle than along the sides ; as a conse- 

 quence, it takes longer to clear it out from the bottom of the valley 

 than it does from its sides, which are completely bared of all traces 

 of the newer rock when a considerable thickness may yet occupy 

 the bottom of the valley. So it comes about that we find the last 

 traces of these deposits now occupying the bottoms of the valleys, 

 and that people are led to believe that these traces are there now 

 because the valley is older than the rock it contains. We do seem 

 to get some kind of evidence of two or three streams coming into 

 the line of the Eden Valley from the direction of the Lake District ; 

 but in no case do we seem to have any trace of a line of depression 

 in the old surface where these streams came in, and I think it 

 quite likely that the lines of rock fragments that form the sole 

 evidence for the existence of these supposed rivers may have been 

 brought into their present position in quite a different way. 



If we do not know of the existence of any mountains, and cannot 

 feel sure about the existence of any rivers here, at the period we 

 are considering, we may at least feel tolerably certain about the 

 existence of one feature here which, in a somewhat different form, 

 is one of the prominent characteristics of this district at the present 

 day. We may, I think, agree with Professor Ramsay in regarding 

 the tract around us as the site of part of an old lake. 



You have probably remarked, if you have compared these rocks 

 around us with them that form, for instance, the line of hills 

 extending along the north side of Cumberland, through Westmor- 

 land, into Yorkshire, or with them that constitute the mountains 

 of the Lake District, that whereas they are characterised by no tint 

 in particular, but range through all shades of brown, grey, blue, 

 and black, these rocks around us are characterised throughout by 

 a tolerably uniform tint of red. It varies a little in its shades, but 



