86 REPORT—1858. 
Calder, between Saddleback and the Caldbeck Fells, and the gradual transition in 
the beds above it from glossy clay-slate to chiastolite slate, hornblende slate and 
gneiss immediately in contact with the granite, have been so often and so well 
described, that I must not repeat what is already known. What was material to 
my present purpose to observe was, that the granite seemed to me to comport itself 
in all respects as if it were simply another term in the series of metamorphic 
changes following the gneiss. 
The general dip of the beds of clay-slate in Skiddaw and to the westward is about 
40° to the south-east. In the northern flank of Saddleback, and near the point 
where the granite appears, this dip has increased to 60°; in the bed of the Calder, at 
the foot of Caldbeck Fells, I observed it about 80°; and in the hills above it seems 
to have become nearly vertical where any dip or stratification can be made out. 
The point in Syning Gill, on the northern slope of Saddleback where the granite 
appears, is very little above the level of the bottom of the valley. The granite occu- 
pies the bottom of the valley, and rises up the southern slope of the Caldbeck Fells 
to a considerably higher elevation than that of Syning Gill,—perhaps 200 or 300 
feet above the valley. 
The upper boundary of the granite is therefore a line dipping to the south-east, 
but at a lower angle than that of the beds of clay-slate, and cutting obliquely across 
them. If we suppose the clay-slate to have had originally the general dip of 40° 
before the elevation of the Caldbeck Fells fault tilted them up to a higher angle, then 
the upper boundary of the granite would have been nearly horizontal, representing 
the isothermal line of igneous fusion; and we should have the beds of clay-slate 
dipping towards and into this line, and converted into granite as they passed below 
it*. No veins of any importance have been observed penetrating from the granite 
into the rocks above, nor did I see any other indication of this granite having been 
eruptive or intrusive, or having in any way disturbed the overlying strata. 
The Skiddaw granite is found, as we have seen, amongst the middle or lower beds 
of the clay-slate formation. We next find granite amongst the lower beds of the 
greenstone slate formation in Eskdale and Miterdale; and this is by much the most 
extensive granitic region. 
In order to explain the position of this Eskdale granite, I must first describe the 
remarkable geological position of Black Comb and the range of hills forming the 
eastern boundary of Eskdale. Black Comb is a huge isolated mass of clay-slate 
2000 feet thick, heaved up amongst the highest of the greenstone slate series of 
rocks, having the Coniston limestone immediately upon its south-eastern flank. 
What is the relation of the clay-slate to the greenstone slate beds? Is it cut off 
on all sides abruptly by great faults; or have the neighbouring greenstone beds 
been raised along with it, and do they rest conformably upon it? What is the 
relation of the clay-slate to the granite? Is there any evidence that the granite 
either underlies the clay-slate or else is distinctly eruptive ? 
It was my object, in a recent examination of the Black Comb range, to find an 
answer to these questions. I found the central mass of Black Comb dipping nearly due 
north about 20°. On the western and eastern flanks of the mountain the dip becomes 
north-west and north-east respectively. I found the same dip in direction and amount 
in the whole of the ridge of greenstone slate running continuous with Black Comb, 
as far at least as Devock Water, to which point I more particularly observed it. 
These greenstone slate beds seemed to me to be clearly the lower coarse conglomerate 
slates and porphyries of that formation. The actual junction of these rocks with the 
clay-slate is generally covered up; but the clay-slate and coarse greenstone slate 
may be seen in the course of a stream crossing the road from Bootle over Stoneside 
Fell, within 20 yards of each other and clearly quite conformable in dip, and the 
character of each rock as perfectly distinct as if they had been found miles apart. I 
found these lower greenstone slate beds completely wrapping round the north- 
western border of the clay-slate as far as Bootle, as shown in Sedgwick’s map. 
These rocks dip north-west or towards the granite, and distinctly separate it from the 
* If this line is continued underneath Saddleback southwards, it will very nearly indicate 
the position of the syenite at the foot of St. John’s Vale, an igneous rock appearing amongst 
the higher beds of the clay-slate. 
