HOPKINS ON THE LAKE DISTRICT. 77 
§ Series of Geological Events in the District. 
11. It may be useful, both as regards a clear conception of what 
has been already advanced and of what I am about to offer in the next 
section, on the denudation of this district, to state the order of geo- 
logical events according to the view now presented of them. 
(1.) The first great system of movements of which this district 
preserves the record, is that by which the beds of the older forma- 
tions were brought into their present highly-inclined position. To 
this period I should refer the imjection of all the masses of igneous 
origin existing among these old sedimentary beds ; because I can trace 
no relation which they bear to the actual elevation of the district. 
These movements were probably contemporaneous with those which 
determined the actual strike of the similar masses in Wales, and might 
extend also far northward, constituting a system of movements of far 
greater superficial extent than those which have probably given to 
the district we are considering its peculiar configuration. They would 
doubtless be attended with enormous dislocations, among which we 
may reckon a part, but not the whole, of those above described. 
(2.) Abstracting all effects of denuding causes, the necessary effects 
of such disturbances would be immense superficial inequalities, form- 
ing hills and valleys, with all that ruggedness of surface which must 
result from the protrusion of the broken edges of highly-inclined 
strata. All these inequalities, however, must have been worn down 
by the long-continued operation of denuding agencies, till the surface 
became a smooth and very nearly horizontal plane beneath the sur- 
face of the sea, as represented in fig. 3. (Art. 4.) 
It is not to be inferred from this extensive denudation, that the 
surface of the disturbed mass was always beneath that of the ocean ; 
it was probably partly above and partly below that level. The mass 
above the surface of the ocean might be removed by the process of 
littoral denudation, similar to that now going on along the coasts of 
existing continents and islands, while minor inequalities beneath the 
sea, and not too remote from its surface, might be worn down by sw- 
perficial denudation,—that produced by the action of the ocean on 
the surface of a mass submerged beneath it. At the same time there 
would always be a tendency to fill up the deeper hollows in the bed 
of the ocean by detritus derived from the degradation of the higher 
portions of the disturbed beds. The old red conglomerate found in 
several places about the lakes, and in a great mass near the foot of 
Ulswater, is thus easily accounted for. 
(3.) This denudation was succeeded by the deposition of the moun- 
tain limestone and Carboniferous system. 
When this deposition was completed, and before its subsequent ele- 
vation and consequent partial removal by aqueous agency, the gene- 
ral average thickness of the whole group (taking the surrounding 
district as well as that with which we are immediately concerned) 
cannot be estimated at much less than 3000 feet, which is probably 
much greater than the depth at which any considerable number of 
organic beings would be found existing. If this be true, it is mani- 
