TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 
, 
89 
and where they would be most thickly covered by superincumbent strata, since de- 
nuded. The Eskdale granite is next in order, then the syenite, and lastly the Skid- 
daw granite. 
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We may fairly suppose the inclination of the strata to have been such, 
that all these points may have been buried to 
the same depth, and equally reached the line 
of igneous fusion. I have endeavoured to illus- 
trate this by a section. 
Another objection may, however, be taken. 
It may be said, ‘‘ Why is not the belt of syenite, 
represented to be the upper beds of clay-slate, 
become metamorphic, continuous along the 
whole border of the clay-slate, instead of only 
appearing at Ennerdale and at St. John’s Vale, 
near Keswick?” 
I think this difficulty may be fairly met by 
the supposition that a cross line of elevation, 
running along the high range of mountains be- 
tween Crummock and Keswick lakes, may have 
existed before the metamorphic action took 
place, and thus the intervening rocks may have 
been raised above the lines of igneous fusion. 
In the same way we may, I think, fairly sup- 
pose that the Black Comb axis of elevation 
may have existed before the metamorphic 
action which produced the Eskdale granite. 
Again, it may be objected that the fragments 
and masses of slate rocks entangled within the 
adjacent igneous rocks, as in the case of the 
clay-slate and syenite in Ennerdale, so graphi- 
cally described by Sedgwick, is a proof of the 
violent intrusion or eruptive character of the 
syenite. But if it can be shown, as I shall 
endeavour to do afterwards, that the fractures 
and upheavals of the strata are due to general 
causes quite distinct from and independent of 
the presence of igneous rocks, then this entan- 
glement of fragments simply proves the igne- 
ous rock to have been fluid, and is no argument 
against its metamorphic character. 
I will now proceed to notice some of the 
objections which may be made to the opposite 
hypothesis to that I have been advocating, viz. 
the supposition that these granites are eruptive 
and intrusive, not metamorphic. 
I exclude, of course, the supposition that 
these different granitic areas can be portions of 
| a granitic base common to all the stratified 
rocks and irregularly exposed by denudation 
only; for in that case we should have the 
whole thickness of the clay-slate interposed 
between the Eskdale granite and the greenstone 
slate, whereas not a particle is to be seen. 
If the granite has been erupted in a fluid 
state, it is difficult to imagine how it could 
occupy such broad spaces as in Eskdale, except 
by flowing over the adjacent strata. I think 
all the evidence of observation on the spot con- 
If the granite, on the other hand, were brought up in a solid state in mass, then 
it must be bounded by faults. I think no geologist can look at the sinuous irregular 
