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



I must admit that there is much that is speculative in this 

 Address, and, so far as details are concerned, I have made suggestions 

 some of which may be proved to be untenable as the result of 

 future work. Many, indeed, of my inferences may appear to be 

 especially doubtful to those who do not know the district ; for it is 

 impossible to do justice to the significance of features which appeal 

 to one forcibly when they are actually viewed, without entering 

 into an excess of detail which would extend this Address to an 

 inordinate length. The cumulative evidence that I have collected 

 points, however, in one direction, namely that erosion has occurred 

 so much more rapidly and extensively along the lines of shatter- 

 belts than over the intervening tracts of rock, that these belts are 

 of great significance in determining the amount of erosion. 



This is, I believe, not a matter of mere local importance, but will 

 have wide application. We have hitherto acquired our knowledge 

 of the laws of water-erosion by study of comparatively-soft rock, 

 where the work proceeds pari passu over all parts of any tract of 

 rock of similar lithological constitution, and the divisional planes are 

 of subsidiary importance. In the case of hard rock, I regard these 

 divisional planes as of primary import, and the texture and hardness 

 of the rocks as playing a minor part. As these divisional planes 

 are so frequently concealed for long distances beneath the super- 

 ficial accumulations of the valley-floors they are apt to escape 

 detection, and accordingly I believe that their importance has been 

 largely underestimated. 



I need not apologize for having confined myself to a particular 

 district, instead of roaming over the world at large in search of 

 illustrations. I have known and loved the district since my 

 boyhood's days, and would fain induce more geologists to visit a 

 region where geology and physical geography can be studied under 

 conditions that stimulate much that is good beside the spirit of 

 scientific enquiry. 



In my Address I have tried to answer two questions put forward 

 by lluskin in 1877 lm . 



' first, what material there was here to carve ; and then what sort of chisels, 

 and in what workman's hand, were used to produce this large piece of precious 

 chasing or embossed work, which we call Cumberland and "\Ve9te-nioreland.' 



My term of office as your President is now over. In offering my 

 1 'Deucalion,' edition of 1891, p. 211. 



