4 Mr. Phillips on a Group of Slate Rocks 



These rocks are traversed by many joints meeting at acute and obtuse 

 anoles, thus producing rhomboidal blocks. This structure prevails in all the 

 vaHeties, and is to be seen in every stream, the waterfalls of which derive 

 peculiar features from the circumstance; and on all the hillsides, which in 

 consequence show long smooth laces of angular rocks. It is this part of the 

 district which most forcibly impresses the idea of slate being a crystallized 

 rock capable of having its angles precisely determined. 



Amono- several variations in the composition and structure of these more 

 recent slate rocks, two appear predominant ; the highly fissile nearly homo- 

 geneous variety with little appearance of mica, and the granular sorts, some of 

 which split with micaceous surfaces, while others contain disseminated mica. 

 IMiese micaceous rocks alternate frequently in vertical or inclined layers ; and 

 the coarse kind incapable of cleavage, with less mica tlian usual, is ohserved to 

 alternate under the name of "galliard," with the homogeneous variety which 

 alone is worked for slate. 



()r«-anic remains, rather sparingly distributed, occur in the finer-grained 

 micaceous rocks, in several places about Kendal and Kirby Lonsdale. In the 

 neighbourhood of the latter place Mr. W. Smith and myself (1823) discovered 



Near Kestwick— Orthoceras, Patella, Trigonia, Plagiostoma, Pecten, Gry- 

 phxa. 



At Beckfoot Turritella, Melania ? Terebratula, and unascertainable bi- 

 valves. 



Similar shells occur at Jenkin Crags and other places near Kendal. 



In diluvium at Biggins— Unio, Spirifer, Terebratula. 



Rocks which cover the Slate Series. 



The slate rocks are in this country usually succeeded by incumbent beds of 

 mountain limestone ; but in a few situations, chiefly in the valleys of consider- 

 able streams, large beds of old red conglomerate intervene, having a dip con- 

 formed to that of the limestone. 



Such beds are seen in abundance at the foot of Uiswater, at Dacre Castle, 

 on the river Lowther and some of its branch streams near Bampton, on the 

 Bother about Sedbergh, on the Mint near Kendal, and the Lune about 

 Kirby Lonsdale. Apparently in the same geological relations red marl and 

 sandstone were observed by Mr. W. Smith and myself near Ulverston in 

 1822. This conalomerate seldom follows the limestone where that rock 

 ascends to higher ground ; so that in Underbarrow Scar near Kendal, and 

 under Wildboar Fell near Sedbergh, the slate is covered by limestone. 



Above the great scars of limestone lies the series of carboniferous rocks, of 

 which the lower portion is characterized by the presence of the conglomerated 



