94 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
above that of Stainmoor, which is now about 1500 feet above the sea. 
It is to the succession of movements to which this relative elevation 
is considered to be due, that we must attribute the great waves of 
transport. This height of 1500 or 2000 feet is probably much more 
than necessary to allow of paroxysmal movements, attended by alter- 
nations of gradual or sudden subsidence, sufficient both in number 
and magnitude for the transport of blocks from this district. 
25. Let us now consider the surface over which the Shap Fell 
blocks must have passed in their course to the Eastern Wolds of York- 
shire. I have shown that the vale of Eden must have been, at least 
to a considerable degree, filled up by the deposition of the new red 
sandstone. At what period did the denudation which gave to the 
valley its present configuration take place ? 
Mr. Phillips has stated, as one of the curious facts of the case be- 
fore us, that in the eastern parts of Yorkshire there are boulders of 
a peculiar conglomerate subjacent to the new red sandstone, contain- 
ing small angular masses of limestone, of which the only known lo- 
cality is the neighbourhood of Kirkby Stephen. It appears to have 
been collected in the lower part of the valley of the Eden previous 
to the deposition of the sandstone, and therefore probably never ex- 
isted at a much greater relative elevation than at present. Admit- 
ting the fact, then, above stated, it would follow that the denudation 
of the valley must have taken place in a very great degree before the 
emergence of Stainmoor (over which the boulders must have passed) 
from beneath the surface of the sea. 
The currents I have described would be the most efficient agents 
we can conceive in this denuding process, which, in such case, must 
have proceeded contemporaneously with that of transport of the 
blocks. But whatever may have been the immediate agency by which 
the denudation was effected, we can have no grounds for supposing 
that it was completed previous to the conveyance of the blocks across 
the valley ; and much more would it be inadmissible to suppose that 
the surface between Shap Fell and Stammoor had, as the bottom of 
the then existing ocean, all the mimor irregularities which now cha- 
racterize it. On the contrary, it must necessarily, as I conceive, have 
been a comparatively even surface (Art. 20), and the depth of the 
submarine valley must, at the period of the transport, have been less, 
possibly much less, than that of the existing valley, of which the denu- 
dation was doubtless completed in the course of the elevation which 
has ultimately raised it above the level of the sea. 
I have here reasoned as admitting the fact above stated respecting 
the Kirkby Stephen conglomerate; but I should state that some 
geologists doubt the possibility of identifymg the conglomerate boul- 
ders with this formation. If we reject the facts as supported by 
insufficient evidence, I should merely modify the above conclusions 
by supposing that less denudation of the valley probably took place, 
by the action of the transporting currents, before the emergence of 
Stainmoor, and a greater portion during the subsequent elevation 
of that region. I shall have again to notice the fact above spoken 
of in reference to the theory of transport by floating ice. 
