Tlic Farndnj of Westmorland. 
5 
Geology. 
Geologically, tlie county has three main divisions, vi/., the 
Cumbrian Mountain Slate Rocks, the Mountain and Carbon- 
iferous Limestone, and the new Red Sandstone. There are 
numerous minor divisions (see Map). 
The north-western part contains green slate and porphyry. 
Slate quarries are worked in Langdale, Grasmere, and Kentmere. 
The western mountains run up into some of the highest and 
most rugged peaks of the lake district. In the south-eastern dis- 
trict are found some of the fossiliferous rocks of Kirkby Moor, 
In a few places in the vales of Kent and Lune, and near Shap 
Wells, are small patches of the old red sandstone, on which is 
invariably found a superior class of fertile soil. The peculiar 
" Coniston band " of limestone, which, after crossing the country 
to the west in a straight line, emerges from the bed of Lake 
Windermere, and runs in a narrow belt across Kentmere, to near 
Shap Wells — wherever it comes near the surface, affords herbage 
much sweeter than that on either side. 
The mountain limestone is abundant at Kendal, and to the 
west, the lofty escarpments of Whitbarrow, Farlton Knot, Arn- 
side Knot, and Scout Scar, being formed of it. It occupies 
much of the central part of the county, as at Orton, Crosby 
Ravensworth, Shap, Ravenstonedale, and Kirkby Stephen, and 
on the Pennine chain it is occasionally capped with the mill-stone 
grit. 
On Shap Fell is the granitic peak known as Wasdale Crag, 
whence boulders have been spread wholesale, by glacial agency 
probably, over nearly all the county, especially to the north and 
east. Some have crossed the deep Vale of Eden, and afterwards 
surmounted the summits of Stainmore, 1000 feet high, and lie 
stranded on the distant plains of Northern Yorkshire. 
The lead-mining at Patterdale and Murton employs altogether 
about 300 hands. The only coal worked is at Tan Hill on 
Stainmore, and it is of poor quality ; and, though previously to 
the railways, supplying a considerable district, it is now of small 
account. The extent of mining in Westmoreland is too small to 
have any appreciable effect on its agriculture. 
Soils. 
In many instances the underlying geological formation is, 
on account of deep deposits of drift, no reliable guide to the 
qualities of the surface-soil. Very often the most extraordinary 
variations occur in the soil in short distances, and even in the 
