TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 85 
normal position, or at any rate more nearly so than the Eskdale and Shap Fells 
granites which appear amongst the higher beds of the greenstone slate. These 
latter, together with the Ennerdale syenites, would be assumed to be eruptive,—to’ 
have had their origin far below their present position, and to have been forced up in 
a melted state. It has been one principal object of my recent examination of this 
district, to ascertain whether the facts bear out this prevailing conception as to the 
origin and position of granite, or not. 
It is of some importance, as one step in this inquiry, to ascertain whether or not 
the Skiddaw granite is found in the anticlinal axis of the district. 
At the last Meeting of this Association at Dublin, Prof. Harkness read a paper on 
the geology of the Caldbeck Fells, and gave asection through Saddleback, the Syning- 
Gill granite, and Caldbeck Fells, showing that the powerful greenstone dyke or 
dykes which run through Caldbeck Fells, are the true anticlinal axis of this part of 
the district, and not the granite. Both Prof. Phillips and the late Daniel Sharpe 
have given sections through the whole range of Skiddaw to the foot of Bassen- 
thwaite, showing a continued series of beds of clay-slate all dipping at about an 
angle of 35° or 40° to the south-east. In all these particulars my own observations 
agree with the descriptions previously given by these observers. 
But though there seems to be no doubt that the Caldbeck Feils, running nearly 
east and west, and having the greenstone slate strata on their northern bank plun- 
ging down at high angles with a dip nearly north, but a little to the west of south, 
is the actual anticlinal of the eastern portion of the Lake District, it cannot be con- 
sidered as the normal anticlinal even of this portion of the district ; for the dip of the 
strata of Skiddaw and Saddleback is uniformly to the south-east, agreeing with the 
general dip and strike of the whole district, and not with the strike of Caldbeck Fells. 
Hence we must conclude that the fracture of the strata and igneous outburst of 
greenstone dykes which accompanied the elevation of Caldbeck Fells, was of later 
date than the original elevation of the rocks of this district and the formation of the 
anticlinal, which must have accompanied that elevation. 
We must look then for the original or normal anticlinal in the western part of the 
district. The dip of the clay-slate in Whinlatter and Wythop Fells is south-east 
nearly as far as the foot of Bassenthwaite. Here the beds of clay-slate may be seen 
thrown into arches and much contracted ; and in Sale Fell indications of a reversal 
of dip to the north-west begin to appear. But the strata at this point are much con- 
fused by the intrusion of greenstone dykes and the proximity of the line of the 
Caldbeck fault, which runs westward to a point near Cockermouth, crossing the line 
of the original anticlinal. 
The clay-slate in the mountains about Crummock Water and to the east of the Vale 
of Lorton, have all the south-easterly dip. But in the range of hills to the west of the 
Vale of Lorton I found a decided and regular anticlinal or reversal of dip, which may 
be seen distinctly on the northern shore of Loweswater and in Revelin on the southern 
shore of Ennerdale Water: in both cases the dip is W.N.W., about 10° or 15°. 
We may consider a line drawn from near the foot of Bassenthwaite through Lowes- 
water and the foot of Ennerdale Water, as the original or true anticlinal of the Lake 
District, and that the upheaval along the line of Caldbeck Fells which completes the 
north-western boundary is of subsequent date.. The angle formed by the Caldbeck 
fault with the Ennerdale and Loweswater anticlinal, is the first indication of the 
action of those forces, which by their complicated action have so dislocated the strata 
of the Lake District. If we look to its south-eastern border, which is so distinctly 
marked by the Coniston limestone, we shall see that the line from the head of Win- 
dermere to Shap Fells granite is nearly parallel to the Caldbeck Fells fault, and 
makes a considerable angle with the direction of the western part of the southern 
boundary, showing that the strike of the whole of the beds in the eastern part of the 
district has been twisted out of its original direction. I shall have occasion to revert 
_ to this fact when I am endeavouring to trace the nature and direction of the 
elevating forces which have raised up the strata. 
I now proceed to describe what appeared to me to be the relative position of the 
granite to the overlying slate rocks at the three points where it is seen in the Lake 
country. 
The appearance of the grey granite of Skiddaw at Syning Gill in the valley of the 
