Vol. 62.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OP THE PRESIDENT. lxVli 



knowledge is necessary in order to enable the traveller to com- 

 prehend its surface-features. Our own islands are, however, far 

 from simple. Not only do they display a great diversity of rocks of 

 different ages, but the movements which they have undergone are of 

 various dates ; and accordingly the geological history of the islands, 

 like its present physiographical condition, is marked by complexity. 



With all this complexity there are, as has been long recognized, 

 certain natural divisions. So far as England and Wales are con- 

 cerned, these are well denned by Dr. H. R. Mill in the map on 

 p. 161 of ' The International Geography.' He there recognizes 

 eleven of these divisions. On the west lie Lakeland, Wales, and 

 Devon & Cornwall ; in the centre the Pennine Chain and the 

 Central Plain ; and on the east and south the Jurassic Belt, the 

 Chalk, the Weald, the London & Hampshire Basins, and the Fens. 



In order to understand fully the present geography of England 

 and Wales, we require a detailed account of each natural division, 

 describing the origin of its scenery. In attempting the account 

 of any one we are more or less concerned with some of the 

 others, and the history of Lakeland is closely connected with 

 that of the Pennine Chain and of parts of the Central Plain. 



The present physical features of the district, in addition to its 

 geology, are so well known to our own countrymen that it is not 

 necessary here to give any detailed account of either. A few words 

 will be sufficient to recall the points which are of importance. 



Lakeland proper is a highland tract of roughly-circular form, 

 having a diameter of about 35 miles, and composed of Lower 

 Palaeozoic rocks. On the south-east side it is connected with 

 the Pennine Chain by an extension of these rocks, forming the 

 elevated tract of the Howgill Fells, near Sedbergh, with a southerly 

 continuation towards Kirkby Lonsdale. Surrounding this central 

 tract of older rocks is a girdle of newer strata, chiefly of Carbon- 

 iferous age ; but, along a small part of the western circumference, 

 beds of ]N"ew-Red-Sandstone age rest upon the Lower Palaeozoic rocks, 

 from St. Bees Head to a point north-west of the estuary of the 

 Duddon. The Pennine Chain runs approximately north and south, 

 and on the north-east is separated from the Lake District by the 

 great depression of the Eden Valley, occupied by New-Red-Sand- 

 stone rocks, and trending north-west and south-east from the mouth 

 of the Solway to the town of Kirkby Stephen. A corresponding 

 depression, largely occupied by rocks of the same age, also occurs 



