1862.] HAROTESS SKIDDAW SLATE SERIES. 119 



The rocks north of the Embleton valley differ somewhat in their 

 mineral character from the Skiddaw slates which lie south of this 

 vale, being harder, of a lighter colour, and having a greater affinity 

 to the greywacke sandstones and shales of the Southern Highlands 

 of Scotland. 



North of the River Derwent, in the district between this and the 

 margin of the Carboniferous rocks, the country is comparatively flat, 

 and no good exposures of rock occur. In the course of a stream 

 called Scalegill, which flows from the west side of Binsey Crag into 

 the Derwent, there are seen at intervals small exposures of rock 

 in situ. Several of these occur in the course of this rivulet through 

 the flat moory country which lies between Binsey Crag and Sunder- 

 land, and exhibit soft black shales, considerably contorted, resembling 

 the Skiddaw slates as they occur in the small areas of Westmoreland, 

 rather than the rocks lying westwards of Bassenthwaite Lake and 

 Derwentwater. Although considerably contorted, the prevailing 

 inclination in this most northerly district of Skiddaw slate is N.N.W., 

 and on the northern margin of this moory tract the Carboniferous 

 formation makes its appearance, as seen at Sunderland. 



With reference to the section extending from Newlands on the 

 south to Sunderland on the north (fig. 2), no fossils have been 

 obtained from that portion of the Skiddaw slates which lies north 

 of the Embleton valley. There is, however, every reason to believe 

 that, when the rocks in this portion of the area have been carefully 

 examined, they too will furnish the same organic remains as occur 

 in the strata lying on the south side of this valley. In the more 

 southern portion of the area under consideration, the mode in which 

 the rocks occur and the localities in which the fossils are found 

 justify the conclusion that, notwithstanding the cleaved character of 

 the great mass of the deposits, there are strata in which this structure 

 is only very imperfectly developed, and which possess a well-marked 

 flaggy nature. These flaggy beds occur at intervals through the 

 whole of the Skiddaw slate series ; and, wherever they present them- 

 selves, they yield fossils which are identical throughout the series, 

 marking these deposits as palseontologically the same through the 

 whole of the group. 



§ 3. The Skiddaw Slates of Cumberland, east of Derwentwater and 



Bassentlvwaite Lakes. 



The north-eastern portion of the Lake-district is occupied by an 

 extension eastwards of the Skiddaw slates which occur in the area 

 already described. This portion has for its western boundary the 

 eastern limits of the district just alluded to, being flanked on this 

 side by the northern end of Derwentwater, the River Derwent, and 

 Bassenthwaite Lake. Its northern boundary is the porphyritic rocks 

 of Caldbeck-fells. On the east it is margined by Carboniferous 

 rocks which skirt Carrock-, Bowscale-, and Mungrisdale-fells ; and 

 on the south the greenish-grey rocks which occur north and west of 

 Matterdale, forming the northern flanks of Great Dod, White Pike, 

 and Wanthwaite Crag, and, extending from the entrance into the 



