the Revolutions iiohich have taken place on the Globe. 249 



effected prior to the deposition of the secondary beds which 

 extend at the foot of the mountains ; and particularly before 

 the formation of the coal-measures of Ilefeld. 



This system, joined to that previously noticed, and perhaps 

 also to others which have not yet been studied, has produced 

 an undulated surface and a dislocated structure in the ancient 

 land {tir und uehergangsgehirge), in the inequalities of which 

 the first beds of that mass of rocks was deposited which 

 Werner named Jloetz gehirge, and the English and French 

 geologists secondary deposits, deposits of which the carboni- 

 ferous series (old red sandstone, mountain limestone, and coal- 

 measures) constitutes the lowest part. 



III. Si/stem of the North of England. — From the latitude of 

 Derby to the frontiers of Scotland, the surface of England is 

 divided by a mountainous axis, which, taken as a whole, runs 

 nearly from south to north, stretching a little towards the 

 N.N.W. In that chain which, being wholly formed of beds 

 of the carboniferous series, is called the great carboniferous 

 chain of the North of England, the forces of elevation appear 

 on the whole to have acted (though not without considerable 

 deviations) on a line bearing nearly north and south (inclining 

 but a {&\\ degrees to the N.N.W. and S.S.E.). Hence great 

 faults have originated, by one of which its western limit is 

 tracked through the Peak of Derbyshire. This is prolonged 

 through an anticlinal line into the high western moors of 

 Yorkshire, and there the western escarpment of the chain is 

 accompanied by enormous breaks from the heart of Craven 

 to the foot of Stainmoor. Another enormous break, passing 

 under the escarpment of the Cross-fell range, meets the pro- 

 longed line of the Craven fault at an obtuse angle near the 

 foot of Stainmoor. By this last fault the insulated position of 

 the lake mountains is at once explained. 



In Professor Sedgwick's memoir, whence the above is de- 

 rived, we find direct proofs that all the fractures above men- 

 tioned took place immediately before the formation of the 

 conglomerates of the new red sandstone {rothe todte licgende), 

 and he aflbrds the strongest reasons for believing that they 

 were produced by an action both violent and of short duration ; 

 for we pass at once from the inclined and disrupted masses to 

 the horizontal conglomerates now resting upon them ; and 

 there is no trace of any etfict that indicates a slow ])rogress 

 from one system of things to the other. Lastly, Professor 

 Sedgwick, speculating on tlio oiigiii of the phanonicna de- 

 scril)ed, points to the diilerent crystalline rocks which appear 

 near the carboniferous chain (loadstone of Derbyshire, and 

 whinstone of Cumberland). 



N. S. Vol. 10. No. 58. Oct. 1831. 2 K The 



