lxvi PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May I906, 



The Influence of the Geological Structure of English 

 Lakeland upon its present Features. — A Study in Phy- 

 siography. 1 



Seated on the summit of Orrest Head one sunny day last summer, 

 gazing at the length of Windermere stretched beneath, with, its 

 wooded islands and promontories ; with, on the north, the fine screen 

 of fells dominated by Scawfell ; on the east, the hills near Sedbergh 

 and Kirkby Lonsdale, with the flat top of Ingleborough rising behind ; 

 on the south, Morecambe Bay with its estuaries: — I felt that an 

 endeavour to reconstruct the history of the features of that physio- 

 graphical unit — the English Lakeland — as an illustration of the 

 importance of the study of geological detail in its bearing upon 

 the present physical aspect of the country would be useful. Eor, 

 although Lakeland is physiographically a unit, I was reminded that 

 its history is closely connected with that of the distant Ingleborough 

 on the one hand, and with that of Morecambe Bay on the other ; 

 and this connexion has never been fully described. 



That much has already been done is generally known ; but, as 

 the result of over thirty years' work in the district, I have been 

 gradually led to recognize the importance of minor details, in 

 addition to the main geological structure, as controlling factors in 

 the physical configuration, and some of the conclusions which I 

 have reached seem to me to be of more than local importance. 



But, apart from any new light which I may be able to throw 

 upon the surface-forms of the district, it is my object to prove, by 

 a critical examination of this limited tract, that close application 

 to geological matters is necessary, in order to illustrate the present 

 physical conditions : in other words, that the physical geographer 

 must be a geologist. 



It is, of course, possible to give a general account of the physical 

 geography of a country without entering very fully into details as to 

 its geological structure, as has indeed been done for our own island 

 by Mr. H. J. Mackinder, in his stimulating work on < Britain & 

 the British Seas ' ; and, in a simple tract like that of a great portion 

 of the Western Territories of North America, little geological 



1 The reader will find it convenient to peruse that part of the Address which 

 deals mainly with the geological structure of the district, with the aid of the 

 Index-Map of the Geological Survey (Sheets 2 & 5) ; and the final part, which 

 treats more especially of the physiography, with the aid of the Geological 

 Survey-Maps on the scale of 1 inch and 6 inches to the mile. 



