1851.] SEDGWICK PALEOZOIC ROCKS OF WESTMORELAND. 39 



duced near the end of the palaeozoic period, were not strictly contem- 

 poraneous — the Craven fault being the older of the two. 



The previous remarks may help to prevent any mistake from the 

 use of the word fault in the sense in which it has been applied to the 

 Craven and Pennine faults. To describe faults of this kind, we want 

 some new technical word. They are neither anticlinals nor syncli- 

 nals ; nor are they faults in the technical sense of the word. The 

 word break, if geologists would consent to use that word technically, 

 might perhaps serve for their designation. 



In a fault of the normal kind, the downcast is almost universally 

 contmued on one side of the line of break : but along the hne of the 

 Craven fault this is by no means the case. Its effects near Kirkby 

 Stephen are seen in the previous section, fig. 1 ; and they produce, 

 on the whole, a great downcast of the masses on the west side ; not, 

 however, in all cases, a downcast immediately on the west side of the 

 break. But through Ravenstonedale, the valleys of Sedbergh and 

 Dent, and the valley between Dent and Kirkby Lonsdale (Barbon- 

 dale), the effects are extremely complicated; being interrupted or 

 modified by the immediate contact of the Cambrian and Silurian 

 rocks*. But where the line of dislocation emerges from among the 

 older mountains, for example near Ingleton, we again see the marks 

 of very complicated movements, — producing, on the whole, a great 

 downcast on the western side. 



Lastly, I would remark that the older rocks were consolidated and 

 elevated before the epoch of the Craven and Pennine faults ; and that 

 these lines of fault were probably not so much produced by well-de- 

 fined axes of elevation, as by unequal pressure arising from a very 

 uneven surface of the older strata, urged upwards by new forces of 

 elevation, and not acting on single Unes, but affecting large tracts of 

 country at the same moment. In confirmation of this view, I may 

 further remark, that the breaks of the carboniferous strata along 

 these lines of fault do not always appear to pass downwards into the 

 Cambrian and Silurian strata, on which the carboniferous mountains 

 rest. If this conclusion be confirmed, it will give us an additional 

 reason for using some new technical word to describe a fault which 

 only affects the upper beds of a great vertical section, without much 

 affecting the lower beds. 



In a former paper, published in the Journal of the Society f, I have 

 shown that a series of beds— the exact equivalents of the Coniston 

 limestone — range through a part of Ravenstonedale, down the valley 

 of Sedbergh J, and thence into the valley of Dent, on a line which 

 passes a little on the west side of the Craven fault. This might sug- 

 gest the conclusion, that the same elevatory movements which pro- 



* For details see the Papers previously referred to ; and Phillips, loc. cit. pi. 24. 

 fig. 14. 



t Quart. Joum. Geol. Soc. vol. ii. p. 120. 



X Down a part of the valley of Sedbergh the range of the Coniston limestone 

 is concealed under the conglomerates of the Old-red-sandstone : but the presence 

 of the hmestone, immediately under the conglomerates, is almost demonstrated by 

 the very numerous calcareous pebbles, containing fine Coniston fossils, which are 

 found dispersed through these conglomerates. 



