GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 



Believing that the great majority of Lake tourists do not wish 

 or expect to find an elaborate treatise on Geology in the volume 

 intended merely to point out what is most worthy of inspection 

 in the district, and the readiest way of reaching it ; but feeling 

 also that a complete Guide book would scarcely merit the title did 

 it not afford some information upon the marvellous arrangement 

 and character of the different systems of rock of which this beau- 

 tiful region is framed, we propose to supply to the tourist a 

 moderate knowledge of the structure of our hills and valleys with 

 the least possible expenditure of time and study. It were useless 

 to speculate upon the long ages that elapsed during the formation 

 of any one of the vast rocky systems of the district, and impos- 

 sible to form any conception of the stupendous forces, which, 

 operating from beneath upon the different stratifications, and so 

 bestowed upon the region the grand external features that render 

 it so attractive even to the most superficial observer. We, there- 

 fore, undertake merely to point out the localities of the various 

 formations and to notice very shortly their nature and character. 



The Slate Rocks. — Nearly the whole area of the Lake 

 District proper consists geologically of three great groups of slate 

 rock, as first pointed out by that self-taught and sound geologist, 

 the late venerable Jonathan Otley, of Keswick. These vary con- 

 siderably in form, character, and aspect, but agree, as their name 

 indicates, in possessing more or less perfectly, the property of 

 cleavage, or of being split into slate or flags. This attribute, 

 however, is in many parts, either lost entirely, or greatly impaired 

 by the influence of Plutonic eruptions, which have forced their 

 way into, and through the slaty strata so as greatly to modify, 



