2 Mr. Phillips on a Group of Slate Rocks 



situated between the celebrated valleys of Liine and Wharfe, and containing 

 some of the finest mountains, caves, and scars in Yorkshire, has long been fre- 

 quented by the lovers of romantic scenery ; and appearances of another kind 

 have probably led many geologists to visit it ; but no publication has at all 

 unfolded the peculiar arrangement of its rocks. 



It cannot be doubted that many persons have noticed the appearances of 

 dislocation which this country presents in several directions. Whoever enters 

 Settle from the south, and goes along the road by Giggleswick Scar, must be 

 struck by the sudden rising of the northern wall of limestone above the ranges 

 of millstone grit on the south. No one reaches Ingleton without feeling sur- 

 prised at the rapid declination of the limestone near that place, contrasted with 

 the level brow and expanded base of Ingleborough. 



On further examination it will be found that the junctions are unusually 

 numerous and interesting between the slate and mountain limestone ; and ex- 

 amples are frequent of the formation of conglomerate in the lower beds of 

 mountain limestone, in places where the old red sandstone is deficient. 



Slate Series of the Lakes. 



The slate formation is perhaps more developed in the Lake district than in 

 any other part of the island. To describe the numerous and interesting va- 

 riations which are here presented, would lead to investigations foreign to the 

 object of this paper ; but a short statement of the great divisions of the series 

 will be found necessary to a right understanding of the particular portion to 

 which the aberrant group hereafter to be noticed belongs. 



A short examination is sufficient to show that the slate rocks of the Lake dis- 

 trict are really grouped in three divisions, lying on one another in a certain 

 order ; and though many variations occur in each, the character of the com- 

 ponent rocks is sufficiently distinct*. 



The slate of the lower division is dark, soft, nearly homogeneous, extremely 

 fissile, and so generally contorted as to be seldom fit for roofing. In Skiddavv 

 and Bowscale Fell much chiastohte is imbedded in it. Between Skiddaw and 

 Saddleback so much hornblende is admitted into its lower part as to change 

 the rock to hornblende slate, beneath which is fine-grained gneiss resting 



* This arrangement of the Slate rocks of Cumberland will be found precisely in accordance 

 with the gcijeral views first establisiied by Mr. Jonathan Otley of Keswick, and published with 

 a geological map of the district, in the Lonsdale Magazine, and in his "Guide to the English 

 Lakes." The opinions of this excellent observer on the stratification of his native district have 

 ))een freely communicated to all inquirers; and more distinguished geologists than myself have 

 found, in the results of careful and repeated examinations, most satisfactory proofs of their accu- 

 racy and im[)ortance. 



