Vol. 62.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XCV 



drainage of the district seems to have been fully established by 

 Hopkins, and has been generally admitted by subsequent writers. 

 We may now pass to the consideration of the characters of this 

 drainage. 



III. Initiation of the Drainage-Lines. 



The absence of any connexion between the axis of uplift of the 

 Lower Palaeozoic rocks, and the coincidence, on the contrary, of the 

 principal watershed of the district with the line which would mark 

 the summit of the dome (if the Carboniferous and newer rocks, 

 where they have now been removed by denudation, were restored in 

 the positions which they must have occupied according to their 

 existing dips), are so generally recognized that it is unnecessary to 

 do more than indicate the general trend of the valleys from this line. 

 The departure from radial symmetry was recognized by Wordsworth 

 and emphasized by Hopkins. The latter author, however, assigns 

 to the uplift certain valleys which I believe to have been wholly or 

 in part due to subsequent denudation along tear- faults ; and I may, 

 in the first place, call attention to the courses which were, I believe, 

 taken by those valleys that were directly due to the elevation of 

 the dome. 



Seven important valleys rise within 2 or 3 miles of Scawfell, 

 and radiate thence. These are, beginning at the south-east : — 

 (i) The great Langdale-Windermere valley, which at first runs 

 nearly south-east and afterwards almost due south ; (ii) west of this 

 the Duddon valley, running a little west of south ; (iii) Eskdale, 

 running south-west ; (iv) Wastdale, almost parallel with the last- 

 named ; (v) Ennerdale, extending nearly east and west ; (vi) the 

 Buttermere-Crummock valley, running almost north-west ; and 

 (vii) the Derwent valley, the course of which is at first a little 

 east of north and afterwards almost due north. The area occupied 

 by the drainage of these valleys is bounded by a line which is 

 greater than a semicircle. No fracture, so far as I know, can be 

 traced along the whole length of any one of the valleys, though 

 occasionally their courses naturally coincide with some of the 

 numerous fractures which affect the older rocks. Yet even in 

 these cases, as I hope to show, the coincidence is often due to 

 subsequent diversion of parts of the river-courses. 



The valleys now to be noticed, and lying east of these, have their 

 heads some distance to the east of Scawfell ; but the watershed 

 coincides with a line drawn from Scawfell to Shap Summit, which is 



